TRAILMAKE 
THE  NORTH 


»M\s  '^^«*«a 


PAUL  L.HAWORT 


I'roiii  photograph  by  tin-  .lulhor 
alls    (li--cii\crf(i    hy    the    Author    near    Ml.    IJciyd    Goorge 


TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE 
NORTHWEST 


BY 

PAUL  LELAND   HAWORTH 

AUTHOR    OF    "on    the    HEADWATERS    OF    PEACE    KIVER,"     "  GEORGE 
WASHINGTON:  FARMER,"      '^THE    UNITED    STATES   IN 

OUR    OWN   TIMES,    I865-I92O,"    ETC. 
FELLOW   OF   THE   AMERICAN   GEOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY 


ILLUSTRATED 


Sjs 


NEW   YORK 

HARCOURT,  BRACE  AND  COMPANY 
1921 


COPYRIGHT,    1921,    BY 
HARCOURT,    BRACE   AND   COMPANY,    INC. 


PRINTED    IN    THE     U.  S     A     BY 

THE    QUINN     a     DODKN    COMPANY 
RAHWAY,    N,    J. 


■^ 


/4 


o 

/ 


PREFACE 

The  story  of  the  exploration  of  the  American  North- 
west is  one  of  the  most  picturesque  and  romantic  in  hu- 
man annals.  Adventurous  men,  pushing  into  the  un- 
known at  the  hazard  of  their  lives,  discovered  wilderness 
oceans  whose  waters  seemed  to  mingle  with  the  sky,  fol- 
lowed the  winding  courses  of  mighty  rivers  for  thou- 
sands of  miles,  found  their  way  through  mountain  laby- 
rinths where  craggy  peaks  lifted  high  their  ice-clad  sum- 
mits, hunted  strange  and  dangerous  wild  beasts,  traded 
and  fought  with  tribes  of  treacherous,  red-skinned  aborig- 
ines who  might  be  friends  to-day  and  deadly  enemies 
to-morrow,  and  finally,  after  centuries  of  effort,  stood 
upon  the  shores  of  the  vast  Pacific  and  gazed  westward 
over  its  heaving  waters  toward  the  old  "  Cathay." 

For  many  years  I  have  been  an  eager  reader  of  the 
literature  of  the  subject,  and  repeatedly  I  have  myself 
made  expeditions  to  the  dwindling  regions  that  yet  re- 
main unexplored.  The  present  book  is  the  outcome  of 
this  reading  and  of  these  first-hand  experiences.  It  does 
not  purport  to  be  exhaustive.  It  is  rather  an  impres- 
sionistic picture  of  a  great  epic  movement,  and,  frankly, 
it  is  a  book  for  boys — young  and  old. 

In  an  appendix  the  reader  will  find  a  list  of  books, 
some  of  which,  I  hope,  he  will  take  the  trouble  to  consult. 
By  so  doing  he  can  become  the  partner  of  many  an  inter- 
esting adventurer  and  can  enjoy  by  proxy  unlimited 
thrilling  experiences.     That  these  books — I  name  only 


iv  PREFACE 

the  very  best — are  not  more  widely  read  is  a  vast  pity, 
and  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  great  general  public  is 
unaware  of  their  existence,  or  at  least  of  their  possibilities 
for  pleasure  unalloyed. 

Paul  L.  Haworth. 

Eastover 

West  Newton,  Indiana 

January,  1921 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Beaver  and  His  Wonderful  Works  and 
How  THE  Demand  for  His  Fur  Led  to 
Great  Discoveries i 

II.     The   Discovery   of   Hudson    Bay   and   the 

Great  Lakes 12 

III.  Pierre  Radisson  and  How  His  Explorations 

Led  to  the  Founding  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company 19 

IV.  Samuel  Hearne  and  His  Search  for  a  Cop- 

per Mine 26 

V.     M.  De  la  Verendrye  and  His  Search  for  the 

Western  Sea 52 

VI.    How  Mackenzie  Reached  the  Arctic     .     .       56 

VII.    How  Mackenzie  Reached  the  Pacific    .     .       68 

VIII.     The  Fur-Trading  Adventures  of  Alexander 

Henry 88 

IX.     Methods  of  Travel  in  the  Fur  Land      .     .     126 

X.     How  the  Red  River  Half-Breeds  Hunted 

THE  Buffaloes 145 

XI.     Further  Sidelights  of  Indian  Life  .     .     .     155 

XII.     The  Tragic  Voyages  of  Sir  John  Franklin     167 

V 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII.  Later  Ti^weleks  and  Explorers  in  the  Ca- 

nadian Northwest i86 

XIV.  How  Amundsen  Made  the  Northwest  Pas- 

sage    226 

XV.     The  Coming  of  the  Settlers 241 

XVI.     The   Brotherhood  of   Trappers  and  Pros- 
pectors OF  To-day 249 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

Falls  Discovered  by  the  Author  Near  Mt.  Lloyd 
George Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Beaver  on  Top  of  His  Lodge .  6 

"  So  Passed  from  View  Henry  Hudson  "    .      .     .     .  14 

A  Blackfoot  Medicine  Man 24 

A  Beaver  Dam 40 

Bloody  Falls,  Coppermine  River 40 

A  Mandan  Chief 54 

Entrance  to  Peace  River  Canyon 76 

Peace  River  in  the  Heart  of  the  Rockies      ...  76 

Indian  Tepees  on  the  Great  Plains 94 

Mandan  Village  on  the  Missouri  River,  1832     .      ,  114 

Dog  Trains  in  the  Foothills  of  the  Rockies     .      .  122 
Scow  Running  the  Grand  Canyon  of  the  Frozen 

River 130 

Portaging  a  Dugout  Canoe  on  the  Upper  Finlay 

River 132 

Free  Trader  Bringing  in  Fur  in  Midwinter  .      ,      .  136 
Jasper  House,  a  Fur  Post  on  the  Headwaters  of 

THE  Athabasca  River 142 

On  the  Great  Plains  Near  the  Elbow  of  the  Sas- 
katchewan      152 

vii 


viii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FAONG  PAGE 

Plains  Indians i6o 

Dog  Trains  at  Old  Fort  Garry,  Near  Winnipeg      .  i88 
Mountains  Near   thi-:   Headquarters   of   the   Sas- 
katchewan       202 

"  I  Had  the  Good  Fortune  to  Kill  an  Immense 

Bull  Moose  " 222 

After   the   Settler   Came   Sod  Hut   and   Buffalo 

Bones 242 

The  Coming  of  Wheat  and  the  Self-Binder      .     .  246 
Shorty  Webber's  Cabin  and  Cache  on  the  Finlay 

River 252 

"  The  Wooden  Tepee  Whose  Very  Embers  Spoke 

Eloquently  of  the  Direness  of  His  Need"     .      .  258 

Trappers  and  Dugout  Canoe 264 

A  Prospector  "  Panning  "  for  Gold 264 


TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE 
NORTHWEST 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  BEAVER  AND  HIS  WONDERFUL  WORKS  AND  HOW  THE 
DEMAND  FOR  HIS   FUR  LED   TO  GREAT   DISCOVERIES 

The  exploration  of  a  large  part  of  what  is  now  Canada 
and  the  United  States  was  due  to  the  presence  of  the 
little  animal  we  call  the  beaver. 

Spanish  explorers  in  America  sought  gold  and  silver 
and  precious  stones,  and  found  them.  Cortez  and  Pizarro 
and  their  mail-clad  followers,  riding  strange  animals  and 
armed  with  steel  swords  and  lances  and  with  guns  and 
cannon  that  spoke  with  the  voice  of  thunder  and  sent 
invisible  death  from  afar,  conquered  Mexico  and  Peru 
and  obtained  vast  booty.  For  generations  thereafter  the 
mines  and  fisheries  of  Spanish  America  sent  yearly  to  the 
homeland  tall  galleons  filled  with  bars  of  silver  and  gold 
and  frails  of  magnificent  pearls,  and  Spain  was  envied 
by  all  other  European  nations  for  her  New  World  treas- 
ure house.  And  in  the  days  of  Good  Queen  Bess  British 
sea  captains  like  Drake  and  Grenville  lay  in  wait  for  the 
tall  galleons  and  took  and  plundered  them,  for  in  those 
days  even  pious  Englishmen  deemed  it  no  sin  to  spoil 
Spaniards  and  Papists. 

French,  British,  and  Dutch  explorers  in  North  America 
also  sought  eagerly  for  precious  metals,  but  in  vain.  Now 
and  then  some  optimistic  navigator  sailed  home  with  a 

1 


2         TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

shipload  of  earth  filled  with  specks  of  glittering  mica, 
which  he  fondly  believed  to  be  gold,  but  two  centuries 
and  a  half  elapsed  after  Columbus's  first  landfall  before 
either  gold  or  silver  was  found  in  considerable  quantities 
in  the  region  north  of  that  held  by  the  Spaniards. 

Nevertheless,  settlers  finally  established  themselves 
along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and  wrung  a  livelihood  from 
the  soil  and  from  fisheries.  Furthermore,  the  land  was 
rich  in  fur-bearing  animals  whose  furs  were  light  and 
easily  transported  and  were  in  demand  in  Europe,  and  the 
fur  trade,  in  a  measure,  made  up  for  the  failure  to  find 
precious  metals. 

The  skins  of  otters,  bears,  mink,  martens,  lynxes,  and 
other  animals  were  eagerly  sought,  but  the  main  staple  of 
all  the  fur  trade  was  the  beaver  skin.  It  surpassed  in 
importance  all  others  combined,  and,  as  we  shall  explain 
in  detail  later,  became  the  unit  of  value  over  half  the 
continent. 

The  beaver,  as  most  people  are  aware,  is  a  small 
animal,  averaging  thirty  or  forty  pounds  weight,  but  occa- 
sionally reaching  sixty  or  seventy.  It  has  exceedingly 
powerful  chisel-shaped  front  teeth,  webbed  hind  feet,  a 
flat  scaly  tail,  and  is  covered  with  a  short,  dense,  and 
silky  fur  that  is  overgrown  with  long  coarse  hairs.  For 
centuries  this  fur  was  greatly  prized  for  the  making  of 
hats. 

In  the  early  days  the  habitat  of  the  beaver  extended 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  from  the  Gulf  to 
Hudson  Bay  and  the  Arctic.  Wherever  within  these 
limits  conditions  were  favorable  the  beaver  was  likely  to 
be  found. 

Water  he  must  have,  not  only  to  drink  but  as  protection 
against  wolves  and  other  enemies.    Trees  or  brushwood 


THE  BEAVER  AND  HIS  WORKS  3 

must  be  present,  for  the  beaver  lives  almost  wholly  upon 
bark  and  twigs,  though  at  times  he  eats  berries  and  the 
roots  of  such  water  plants  as  lilies  and  spatterdocks. 

Some  beavers  are  content  merely  to  live  in  burrows 
dug  in  the  banks  of  rivers  or  streams.  These  are  some- 
times called  "  bank  beavers,"  and  I  have  had  trappers 
tell  me  that  they  form  a  separate  species,  but  this  is 
not  the  case.  Much  more  interesting  are  those  that  build 
dams  and  live  in  hutches  or  lodges  built  in  the  ponds 
thus  formed. 

The  dams  vary  in  length  from  a  few  feet  to  a  quarter 
or  half  a  mile.  The  main  object  of  these  dams  is  to 
keep  the  water  at  a  certain  level.  The  ponds  themselves 
vary  greatly  in  size;  I  have  seen  them  hardly  more  than 
puddles  a  few  yards  across,  and  I  remember  one  in  north- 
ern British  Columbia  that  covers  several  hundred  acres. 
The  small  dams  are  likely  to  be  the  work  of  a  single 
family;  in  the  building  of  the  longer  ones  several  families 
cooperate. 

Most  dams  are  built  of  branches  and  small  logs,  chinked 
with  mud,  but  beavers  will  also  use  stones  or  whatever 
material  happens  to  be  handy.  It  was  long  popularly 
believed  that  in  building  them  the  beaver  made  use  of  his 
flat  tail  as  a  trowel,  but  this  is  a  myth  long  since  exploded. 
The  beaver  carries  the  mud  clasped  between  his  short 
forepaws  and  his  breast,  and  does  not  use  his  tail  in  the 
building  process  at  all.  He  seems,  however,  to  use  his 
tail  to  a  certain  extent  in  swimming  and  when  alarmed 
he  will  slap  the  top  of  the  water  with  it,  making  a  report 
that  can  be  heard  a  long  distance.  More  than  once  in  the 
far  Northland  I  have  been  awakened  by  beavers  that  in 
swimming  past  our  camp  would  get  the  dreaded  man- 
scent  and  would  then  slap  their  tails  on  the  water. 


4         TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

In  selecting  a  site  for  his  dam  the  beaver  displays  much 
intelligence.  He  chooses  a  place  where  the  water  will 
form  a  pond  close  to  which  there  will  be  plenty  of  sap- 
lings and  trees  of  the  varieties  that  make  good  food,  such, 
for  example,  as  birch,  poplar,  alder,  etc.;  as  a  rule  a 
beaver  eats  the  bark  and  twigs  of  deciduous  trees  only 
and  does  not  care  for  evergreens  like  pine,  cedar,  or 
spruce.  He  selects  a  narrow  spot  in  the  stream,  so  that 
his  dam  will  be  as  short  as  possible;  and  he  takes  every 
advantage  of  fallen  trees,  rocks,  or  other  objects  that 
will  help  to  anchor  the  structure. 

On  small  streams  that  do  not  have  much  current  or 
that  are  not  subject  to  big  floods  a  single  dam  is  usually 
considered  sufficient  by  the  flat-tailed  engineers.  On 
more  powerful  streams  they  sometimes  employ  a  plan  so 
ingenious  that  it  seems  incredible  that  an  animal  could 
have  the  intelligence  to  have  evolved  it.  Below  the  main 
dam  they  will  construct  another  dam,  which  backs  up  the 
water  against  the  main  dam  and  helps  to  support  it 
against  the  pressure  from  above.  They  have  even  been 
known  to  build  a  third  dam  in  order  to  give  support  for 
the  second. 

Once  the  dam  is  built  the  beavers  keep  close  watch 
upon  it.  A  spillway,  or  perhaps  several,  has  been  pro- 
vided, over  which  the  surplus  water  can  run;  in  case  one 
of  these  ways  is  cut  too  deep  by  the  current,  the  animals 
soon  repair  the  damage  done,  for  it  is  a  prime  object  to 
keep  the  water  always  at  the  same  level.  If  the  injury 
is  slight,  one  beaver  may  make  all  the  renairs;  if  a  con- 
siderable gap  has  been  cut,  as  by  a  flood,  all  will  pitch 
in  and  with  sticks  and  earth  will  fill  up  the  break. 

Trappers  take  advantage  of  this  habit  of  beavers  with 
fatal  effect.    They  will  cut  a  breach  In  the  dam  and  then 


THE  BEAVER  AND  HIS  WORKS  5 

round  it  will  set  their  traps,  knowing  that  when  darkness 
comes  the  industrious  animals  will  be  almost  certain  to 
set  to  work  making  repairs  and  will  thus  put  their  feet 
in  the  traps. 

Having  completed  their  dam,  the  beavers  are  likely 
to  begin  building  their  hutch  or  house.  This  is  usually- 
made  of  sticks  and  mud,  with  the  foundation  deep  enough 
in  water  so  that  a  passageway  will  be  left  under  the  ice 
even  in  the  coldest  winter,  while  the  conical  top  rises 
well  above  the  surface.  Late  in  the  fall  the  beavers  are 
likely  to  give  their  house  an  extra  coating  of  mud.  This 
soon  freezes  and  forms  a  covering  that  is  impenetrable 
by  wolves,  wolverines,  or  any  of  the  beaver's  other  ene- 
mies except  man. 

The  hutches  vary  in  size  from  heaps  of  mud  and  sticks 
six  or  eight  feet  across  and  three  or  four  feet  high  to 
structures  several  times  as  large.  The  largest  I  ever  hap- 
pened to  have  seen  lies  near  the  Quadacha  River  in  a 
remote  part  of  northern  British  Columbia.  As  it  was  a 
considerable  distance  out  in  a  large  pond,  I  was  unable  to 
get  near  enough  to  measure  it,  but  it  was  certainly  up- 
wards of  thirty  feet  across  at  the  base  and  nine  or  ten 
feet  high. 

These  big  houses  are  usually  inhabited  by  two  or  more 
families;  the  smaller  houses  by  only  one.  Where  two  or 
more  families  occupy  a  hutch  there  will,  of  course,  be 
more  than  one  room  within,  which  may  or  may  not  be 
connected;  and  it  is  possible  that  it  is  this  circumstance 
that  first  gave  rise  to  fanciful  stories  that  beavers  have 
several  rooms  appropriated  to  different  uses,  such  as  eat- 
ing, sleeping,  and  storing  provisions.  All  close  observers 
of  the  beaver  declare  that  this  is  not  the  case.  Upon  this 
subject  Samuel  Hearne,  whose  adventurous  experiences 


6         TRATOIAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

will  be  described  in  detail  a  little  later,  says:  "It  fre- 
quently happens  that  some  of  the  larger  houses  are  found 
to  have  one  or  more  partitions^  if  they  deserve  that  appel- 
lation; but  that  is  no  more  than  a  part  of  the  main  build- 
ing, left  by  the  sagacity  of  the  beaver  to  support  the  roof. 
On  such  occasions,  it  is  common  for  those  different  apart- 
ments, as  some  are  pleased  to  call  them,  to  have  no  com- 
munication with  each  other  but  by  water;  so  that  in  fact 
they  may  be  called  double  or  treble  houses,  rather  than 
different  apartments  of  the  same  house.  I  have  seen  a 
large  beaver  house  built  in  a  small  island  that  had  near  a 
dozen  apartments  under  one  roof;  and,  two  or  three  of 
these  excepted,  none  of  them  had  any  communication 
with  each  other  but  by  water.  As  there  were  beavers 
enough  to  inhabit  each  apartment  it  is  more  than  prob- 
able that  each  family  knew  its  own,  and  always  entered 
at  their  own  door." 

As  a  rule,  each  apartment,  whether  there  be  one  or  sev- 
eral in  a  house,  has  at  least  two  entrances.  Doubtless 
this  is  partly  because  the  beavers  wish  to  be  sure  of  an 
avenue  of  escape  in  case  one  entrance  should  be  blocked 
by  an  enemy. 

The  size  of  the  interior  chambers  varies  greatly.  Some 
are  no  more  than  three  or  four  feet  in  diameter  and  two 
feet  high.  Exceptional  ones  have  been  found  that  were  a 
dozen  or  even  twenty  feet  across.  Ten  years  ago  when  on 
a  hunting  trip  in  Alberta  in  the  wilderness  of  mountains 
that  lies  around  the  headwaters  of  the  Athabasca  and 
Saskatchewan  rivers  my  Cree  Indian  guide,  Jimmy  Paul, 
told  me  a  strange  story  of  such  a  big  beaver  apartment. 
Poor  Jimmy!  we  ran  into  wretched  weather  on  the  trip, 
with  a  great  deal  of  rain  and  snow,  and  he  suffered  so 
much  that  he  died  two  days  after  his  return.    His  story 


THE  BEAVER  AND  HIS  WORKS  7 

was  that  once  when  a  small  lad  he  was  traveling  with 
his  parents  and  brothers  and  sisters  in  the  foothills  and 
they  were  overtaken  by  one  of  the  great  forest  fires  that 
so  often  devastate  the  region.  Escape  by  flight  was 
impossible,  but  fortunately  close  by  there  was  a  small 
beaver  pond  in  which  stood  an  enormous  hutch  that  the 
father  and  other  Indian  hunters  had  broken  into  that 
spring.  The  father  put  his  squaw  and  the  children  into 
this  house  and  covered  the  opening  with  a  wet  blanket, 
while  he  himself  stood  in  the  water  outside,  with  another 
wet  blanket  over  his  head.  The  fire  came  roaring  through 
the  woods  like  a  tornado.  A  she-bear  and  two  cubs, 
several  deer,  and  a  bull  moose  also  took  refuge  in  the 
pond.  The  flames  leapt  right  over  the  water  and  caught 
in  the  trees  beyond.  The  father  was  half  stifled  with  heat 
and  smoke,  but  by  frequently  ducking  his  head  he  kept 
the  blanket  around  it  wet,  while  he  threw  water  on  the 
one  he  had  put  over  the  opening  in  the  lodge.  Despite 
these  efforts,  both  blankets  were  badly  singed,  but  the 
lives  of  all  the  Indians,  big  and  little,  were  saved.  Most 
of  the  deer  were  killed,  and  the  moose  and  the  bears  were 
badly  burned  about  the  heads,  but,  when  the  fire  finally 
passed,  they  were  able  to  walk  away. 

In  building  dams  and  in  gathering  food  beavers  cut 
trees  ranging  from  mere  saplings  up  to  those  that  are 
two  or,  occasionally,  even  three  feet  in  diameter.  The 
rapidity  with  which  with  their  powerful  teeth  they  will 
fell  a  tree  is  astonishing.  Not  infrequently  the  cutting 
looks  as  if  it  had  been  done  with  an  axe,  though  closer 
inspection  will  show  the  marks  of  the  broad  teeth.  When 
once  a  tree  is  down,  the  beavers  cut  off  the  limbs  and  cut 
the  trunk  itself  into  convenient  lengths,  though  they  do 
not  do  this  with  trunks  too  large  to  be  moved. 


8         TRATLMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

The  chief  food  of  the  beaver  is  bark,  not  the  outside 
shell  but  the  cambium  layer,  which  is  more  nutritious. 
They  also  eat  some  of  the  wood  beneath  the  bark  but 
probably  get  little  food  value  from  it.  In  spring,  sum- 
mer, and  fall  they  eat  their  meals  wherever  it  happens 
to  be  convenient,  but  for  winter  use  they  sink  in  the  water 
near  their  lodge  a  heap  of  limbs  and  poles. 

It  is  in  the  transportation  of  this  store  of  food  that  the 
beaver  displays  perhaps  his  greatest  intelligence.  If 
trees  or  saplings  of  the  right  variety  stand  at  the  edge  of 
his  pond,  he  can,  of  course,  cut  them  down  and  then  do 
almost  all  the  work  of  transportation  by  water.  Some- 
times a  tree,  when  cut,  falls  right  into  the  pond,  in  which 
case  the  job  is  easy.  But  not  infrequently  it  happens 
that  the  beavers  exhaust  the  supply  of  trees  close  to  the 
water  and  must  go  considerable  distances  for  their  food. 
One  traveling  in  beaver  country  will  often  see  the  roads 
along  which  the  beavers  have  dragged  the  limbs,  and  it 
is  noticeable  that  the  animals  have  been  careful  to  clear 
away  the  obstacles  that  might  impede  the  transportation 
work. 

Where  circumstances  are  favorable  beavers  have  been 
known — incredible  as  it  may  seem — to  dig  canals  from 
their  pond  to  the  trees  they  intend  to  cut.  These  canals 
are  usually  two  or  three  feet  wide  and  deep  enough  to 
float  a  limb  or  small  log.  To  supply  water  for  the  canals 
the  flat-tailed  engineers  will  tap  springs  or  brooks  and 
divert  the  water  into  their  waterway.  In  case  the  ground 
slopes  up  they  will  even  construct  a  dam  and  then  con- 
tinue the  work  at  a  higher  level.  Sometimes  several  such 
dams  or  locks  are  used.  Down  these  canals  the  beavers 
float  the  limbs  and  logs,  pulling  them  over  the  dams. 

The  beaver  displays  so  much  skill  as  an  engineer  that 


THE  BEAVER  AND  HIS  WORKS  g 

many  naturalists  consider  him  the  most  intelligent  of  all 
animals.  And  yet  he  is  not  all-wise  even  in  doing  the 
kinds  of  work  that  I  have  described.  I  recall  that  near 
one  of  my  camps  in  the  far  Northwest  I  noticed  two 
striking  instances  of  the  beaver's  limitations.  The  ani- 
mals had  been  felling  trees  that  stood  on  the  bank  of  a 
river  that  flowed  close  by.  They  wished,  of  course,  the 
trees  to  fall  into  the  water,  and  had  they  understood  the 
art  of  "  throwing  "  trees,  by  making  most  of  the  cut  on 
the  side  nearest  the  water,  they  could  have  felled  almost 
all  the  trees  in  that  direction.  But  as  often  as  not  the 
main  cut  was  on  the  landward  side,  with  the  result  that 
the  tree  had  fallen  right  away  from  the  water.  In  many 
instances,  in  fact,  the  animals  had  gnawed  in  about  the 
same  depth  from  all  sides,  and  in  such  cases  the  tree 
would  fall  according  to  the  way  it  leaned  or  according  to 
the  way  the  wind  was  blowing.  In  one  instance  the  ani- 
mals (or  one  animal)  had  attempted  to  cut  a  small  poplar 
that  grew  between  three  spruce.  A  glance  would  have 
convinced  a  human  being  that  the  tops  of  the  trees  were 
so  interlaced  that  the  poplar  could  not  fall.  Neverthe- 
less the  beavers  had  set  to  work  and  cut  the  poplar  com- 
pletely off.  Then,  when  the  tree  did  not  fall,  they  had 
cut  it  down  again,  but  had  finally  given  up  the  under- 
taking as  a  bad  job  after  doing  a  lot  of  useless  gnawing 
about  the  butt. 

The  effect  of  the  work  of  beavers  upon  the  contour  and 
shape  of  the  land  was  important  far  beyond  what  is  gen- 
erally understood.  There  is  hardly  a  stream  in  North 
America,  north  of  Mexico,  along  which  they  did  not  live 
and  labor,  in  many  cases  for  countless  generations.  Their 
dams  formed  reservoirs  which  caught  leaves  and  dead 
trees  and  debris  of  all  kinds.    These  things  in  course  of 


lo       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

time  would  decompose  and  would  form  a  deep  vegetable 
muck.  Thus  during  the  ages  a  land-forming  process  was 
going  on.  Ultimately  the  ponds  would  be  transformed 
into  swamps  and  these  in  turn  into  meadows,  over  which 
great  forests  might  ultimately  grow.  In  fact,  millions 
upon  millions  of  the  richest  bottom  lands  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada  owe  their  existence  to  the  labors  of 
endless  generations  of  beavers. 

On  this  subject  Warburbn  Pike,  in  his  fascinating 
book,  The  Barren  Ground  of  Northern  Canada,  says: 
"  On  the  second  day  we  crossed  [northwest  of  Great 
Slave  Lake]  a  large  prairie  dotted  with  lakes,  formerly 
the  home  of  many  beavers,  and  still  bearing  evidence  of 
their  labours  in  the  long  banks  which  served  as  dams  and 
the  huge  mounds  which  were  once  their  houses.  The 
beavers  have  all  gone  long  ago,  and  the  ladies  who  wore 
the  pretty  fur-trimmed  jackets  in  far-away  England, 
and  the  husbands  who  grumbled  at  their  price,  are  gone 
too;  but  the  beavers  have  left  the  most  impression  on 
the  face  of  the  earth.  Wonderful  moulders  of  geography 
they  are;  a  stream  dammed  up  in  a  level  country  forms 
a  huge  lake  where  the  forest  stood,  the  trees  fall  as  their 
roots  rot  in  standing  water,  and,  if  the  dam  be  not  at- 
tended to  by  the  workers,  a  fertile  grass-covered  prairie 
takes  the  place  of  the  lake." 

A  species  of  beaver  inhabited  Europe,  and  the  fur  of 
the  animal  was  highly  esteemed  long  before  the  discovery 
of  America.  The  early  explorers  of  America  when  they 
brought  back  beaver  skins  found  a  ready  sale  for  them 
at  high  prices.  The  furs  were  of  little  weight  or  bulk  in 
comparison  with  value,  and  this  helped  to  make  the  devel- 
opment of  the  traffic  practicable.  The  prices  paid  were 
even  greater,  in  real  value,  than  those  of  to-day.    Hats 


THE  BEAVER  AND  HIS  WORKS  ii 

made  of  such  fur  came  to  be  so  greatly  in  demand  that 
in  the  seventeenth  or  eighteenth  century  a  good  "  beaver  " 
would  sometimes  bring  ninety  shillings,  which  is  about 
twenty-two  dollars  and  a  half,  and  the  purchasing  power 
of  money  in  those  days  was  so  much  greater  than  now 
that  this  price  was  probably  equivalent  to  at  least  a  hun- 
dred dollars. 

To  obtain  the  precious  skins  men  penetrated  vast  dis- 
tances into  savage  wildernesses,  great  companies  were 
formed  to  engage  in  the  trade,  and  nations  even  fought 
each  other  for  the  control  of  regions  rich  in  furs. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  DISCOVERY  OF   HUDSON   BAY  AND   THE  GREAT  LAKES 

As  everybody  knows,  Columbus  sailed  in  search  of  a 
western  route  to  the  rich  East  Indies  and  never  realized 
that  he  had  discovered  a  New  World.  Even  after  the 
truth  was  known  many  Europeans  regarded  the  new  con- 
tinents in  the  light  of  obstacles  rather  than  acquisitions, 
and  navigators  continued  to  search  for  a  way  to  "  China 
and  Cathay."  In  1519  Magellan  passed  through  the 
straits  that  now  bear  his  name  and,  crossing  a  wide  ocean, 
finally  reached  the  true  Indies.  But  the  route  he  had 
discovered  was  long,  and  for  generations  men  hoped  that 
a  more  direct  way  through  the  great  land  barrier  might 
be  found. 

For  hundreds  of  years,  in  fact,  adventurous  sea  cap- 
tains kept  pushing  the  prows  of  their  ships  up  every  inlet 
and  river  in  the  two  Americas  in  the  hope  that  the  way 
would  lead  them  at  last  to  the  open  waters  of  the  "  South 
Sea,"  the  Pacific  of  to-day.  Even  after  it  was  clear  thnt 
no  such  route  existed  in  tropical  or  temperate  climes, 
explorers  continued  down  to  our  own  time  to  try  to  find 
a  way  round  northern  North  America.  This  search  for 
the  "  Northwest  Passage  "  forms  one  of  the  most  ad- 
venturous and  romantic  chapters  in  all  history. 

Many  such  navigators  there  were — Cabot  and  Cartier, 
Davis  and  Baffin,  Frobisher  and  all  the  rest — but  the 
most  important  for  our  purpose  was  that  famous  English 
dreamer  and  adventurer,  Henry  Hudson.    Two  danger- 

12 


HUDSON  BAY  AND  THE  GREAT  LAKES      13 

ous  voyages  he  made  to  the  foggy,  frozen  sea  that  lies 
to  the  eastward  of  Greenland,  only  to  be  turned  back 
by  impenetrable  barriers  of  ice.  On  a  third  voyage, 
undertaken  in  the  interest  of  the  Dutch,  he  discovered, 
in  1609,  the  Hudson  River,  on  whose  bank  rises  to-day 
the  great  metropolis  of  our  Western  World. 

In  1 610  he  set  out  from  the  Thames  in  the  bark  Dis- 
covery, and  after  weeks  of  being  buffeted  about  by  angry 
seas,  sailed  past  southern  Greenland  and  entered  Hud- 
son Straits.  Ice  floes  and  great  icebergs,  miles  long, 
dangerous  reefs  and  rocky  islands,  indraughts  and  swift 
currents,  made  navigation  perilous  to  the  last  degree, 
while  the  crew  muttered  against  going  further,  and  the 
mate,  a  rascal  named  Juet,  had  to  be  deposed  for  mutiny. 
But,  undaunted,  Hudson  sailed  his  ship  into  that  great 
inland  sea  that  now  bears  his  name,  and  bore  away  south- 
westward,  hoping  that  the  long-sought  Northwest  Pas- 
sage had  been  found.  He  came  at  last,  however,  to  the 
west  side  of  James  Bay  and  realized  that  fickle  fate  had 
tricked  him  and  that  he  was  land-locked,  with  the  long 
Arctic  winter  at  hand  and  with  a  scanty  supply  of 
stores. 

The  winter  proved  to  be  the  coldest  any  of  the  explorers 
had  ever  experienced.  Luckily  there  was  wood  in  abun- 
dance, and  stone  fireplaces  were  built  on  the  deck  of  the 
ship.  Many  birds  and  some  other  kinds  of  game  were 
shot,  but  there  was  a  shortage  of  bread.  The  gunner 
died,  and  others  of  the  crew  suffered  from  scurvy.  When 
spring  came,  some  fish  were  caught,  but  when  the  ice 
broke  up  and  there  was  a  chance  to  sail  for  home,  there 
was  food  left  for  only  about  two  weeks.  Juet,  the  de- 
posed mate,  and  other  malcontents,  plotted  to  maroon 
Hudson  and  the  loyal  men  so  that  they  themselves  could 


14       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

have  all  the  food  and  on  their  return  home  say  that 
Hudson  and  the  others  had  died. 

At  daybreak  one  morning,  when  Hudson  came  out  of 
his  cabin,  three  of  the  villains  sprang  upon  him  and 
bound  his  arms.  Then  the  mutineers  gathered  round 
and  jeered  him.  Hudson,  his  little  son,  and  eight  others, 
most  of  them  weak  and  sick,  were  put  into  the  open  shal- 
lop, with  some  arms  and  cooking  utensils  but  little  or  no 
food.  One  brave  and  loyal  seaman  from  Ipswich  was 
offered  a  chance  to  remain  on  board,  but  he  begged  to 
be  set  adrift  with  his  commander.  The  ship  then  sailed 
away,  leaving  the  boat  and  its  occupants  adrift  on  the 
great  inland  sea. 

So  passed  from  view  Henry  Hudson,  one  of  the  world's 
great  discoverers.  His  fate  and  that  of  those  with  him 
remains  one  of  the  mysteries  of  the  merciless  deep. 
Whether  they  soon  perished  amid  the  angry  waves, 
whether  they  were  cast  on  some  inhospitable  coast  and 
died  of  hunger  or  were  slain  by  the  savages,  can  never 
be  known.  A  great  artist  has  painted  a  famous  picture 
which  represents  the  old  navigator  in  the  shallop,  the 
helm  grasped  in  one  hand  while  with  the  other  he  holds 
the  hand  of  his  little  lad,  who  sits  between  his  knees  and 
looks  up  into  his  father's  face.  In  the  background  beyond 
a  stretch  of  water  towers  a  mighty  iceberg.  And  on  the 
noble  countenance  of  the  mariner  is  the  hopeless  look  of 
a  brave  man  who  is  already  staring  into  eternity.  What- 
ever his  fate,  the  famous  river  and  the  mighty  bay  remain 
the  bold  dreamer's  monuments. 

It  is  grim  satisfaction  to  know  that  it  fared  ill  with  the 
mutineers.  Several  were  slain  bv  the  Eskimos.  Juet, 
the  traitorous  mate,  died  of  starvation  in  si?ht  of  Ireland. 
Only  a  few  survived  the  horrors  of  the  homeward  voyage, 


From   the    pai)iting  by   Collier 

"So   passed   from   view   TTeiiry    lliulson" 


HUDSON  BAY  AND  THE  GREAT  LAKES      15 

and  some  of  them  were  speedily  seized  and  punished  for 
mutiny. 

Admiral  Sir  Thomas  Button  sailed  to  Hudson  Bay  the 
next  year  on  a  vain  search  for  the  missing  men.  He  win- 
tered at  Port  Nelson  and  lost  so  many  men  from  scurvy 
and  other  causes  that  he  could  bring  home  only  one  of 
his  two  ships.  Other  expeditions,  including  one  sent  out 
by  the  Danes,  visited  the  Bay  in  this  period,  but  all  suf- 
fered dreadful  hardships,  and  for  half  a  century  no  at- 
tempt was  made  at  settlement.  The  final  establishment 
of  trading  posts  on  the  great  inland  sea  was  due  to  activi- 
ties from  another  direction. 

About  the  time  that  Henry  Hudson  was  making  his 
adventurous  voyages,  the  French,  under  such  hardy  lead- 
ers as  Champlain,  were  settling  along  the  St.  Lawrence  at 
Quebec,  Mont  Royal  (Montreal),  and  elsewhere.  Like 
other  visitors  to  the  New  World  they  had  great  hopes  of 
finding  silver  or  gold,  but  failing  they  turned  their  atten- 
tion to  the  fur  trade.  In  161 5  Champlain  ascended  the 
rapids-filled  Ottawa,  crossed  a  portage  track  worn  smooth 
by  untold  generations  of  moccasined  feet  following  the 
great  aboriginal  route  between  East  and  West,  reached 
the  broad  expanse  of  demon-infested  Lake  Nipissing,  and 
floated  down  the  current  of  French  River. 

Now  they  passed  between  pine-tufted  craggy  islands, 
where  patriarchal  fir-trees,  shaggy  with  pendant  mosses, 
cast  dark  shadows;  while  in  the  clear  water  the  bleached 
trunks  of  fallen  monarchs  of  the  forest  formed  screens 
for  hungry  sharp-toothed  muskellunges  waiting  for  their 
finny  prey.  Again  they  glided  between  walls  of  gneissic 
granite,  in  whose  crevices  the  bearded  cedar  clung  with 
snake-like  roots;  while  aloft  the  rock  maple,  the  aspen, 
and  the  glistening  birch  reared  their  light  green  foliage 


i6       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

beneath  the  towerinfr  white  pines.  In  places  they  beheld 
where  rushing  fires  had  scorched  the  rocks  and  left  dead, 
blasted  trunks  standing  amid  the  blackened  stumps  and 
prostrate  bodies  of  comrades  half  consumed.  From  be- 
hind lichen-clad  rocks  the  stealthy  lynx  and  the  hungry 
cougar  watched  them  as  they  floated  by,  the  awkward 
porcupine  waddled  leisurely  with  rustling  quills  into  the 
thicket;  the  loons  dived  into  the  brown  water;  the  star- 
tled deer,  come  down  to  drink,  bounded  off  like  huge 
rabbits;  and  the  giant  moose,  standing  in  some  cove  to 
escape  the  flies,  plunged  shoreward,  shaking  his  huge 
antlers  and  wet  sides,  and  with  unwieldy  but  silent  trot 
vanished  in  the  labyrinthine  woods. 

They  passed  the  Five  Mile  Rapids,  portaged  round  the 
Grand  Recollet,  where  the  river  pours  itself  with  unceas- 
ing roar  into  a  foamy  caldron,  then  fared  onward  past 
other  rapids,  and  at  length  floated  out  upon  the  broad 
bosom  of  the  "  Mer  Douce,"  the  Fresh-Water  Sea  of  the 
Hurons. 

Here  they  turned  southward  down  the  expanses  of 
Georgian  Bay,  threading  their  course  among  the  thirty 
thousand  islands  off  that  iron-bound  coast,  which,  when 
the  Pyramids  were  yet  undreamed  of.  had  for  ages  felt 
the  wash  of  summer  waves  and  the  battering  of  winter's 
ice.  At  their  night  camps  on  rocky  islets  their  fires  of 
resinous  driftwood  glared  against  the  dark  foliage  of  the 
trees  and  shone  far  out  over  the  water,  while  from  afar 
came  the  lonely  cry  of  the  loon,  the  howl  of  the  hungry 
wolf,  and  the  hoarse  bellow  of  the  moose.  After  an  inter- 
val of  darkness  the  east  would  glow  again  with  a  vivid 
fire  across  the  waters  and  through  the  dagger-like  tops 
of  the  firs  and  spruce,  while  the  fading  moon  would  fall 
beneath  the  western  sky.    Presently  the  camp  would  be 


HUDSON  BAY  AND  THE  GREAT  LAKES      17 

^stir,  and  after  a  hurried  meal,  Champlain,  his  armed 
followers,  and  his  aboriginal  guides,  would  board  their 
birch-bark  canoes  and  paddle  onward  toward  the  villages 
of  the  Hurons.  Here,  in  due  course,  they  arrived  and 
found  the  Recollet  Father  Le  Caron,  who  had  preceded 
them. 

Thus  was  found  a  way  to  Lake  Huron  and  the  other 
great  inland  seas  that  lie  beyond  it.  For  generations 
the  route  thither  by  way  of  lakes  Ontario  and  Erie  was 
rendered  too  perilous  by  the  hostile  Iroquois  to  be  much 
used  by  the  French,  but  it  was  not  long  before  adven- 
turous laymen  like  Brule  and  Nicolet  and  Joliet  and  La 
Salle  and  devoted  missionaries  like  Allouez  and  Mar- 
quette had  wet  their  canoes  in  the  waters  of  lakes  Mich- 
igan and  Superior  and  had  even  followed  the  mighty 
Mississippi  to  the  warm  waters  of  the  Gulf.  Soon  hardy 
coureurs  de  bois  were  trading  with  all  the  tribes  of  the 
interior,  were  mating  with  squaws,  were  rearing  a  dusky 
progeny  whose  sinewy  muscles  were  to  form  much  of  the 
motive  power  behind  the  paddles  of  canoes  that  pushed 
still  further  westward,  and  were  establishing  posts  at 
Detroit,  Mackinaw,  Vincennes,  and  other  places.  But 
this  is  a  long  and  complicated  story  which  has  already 
been  told  far  better  in  the  picturesque  pages  of  Parkman 
than  it  can  ever  be  told  again. 

For  our  purpose  the  important  point  is  that  well  before 
the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  white  men  had  become 
acquainted  with  Hudson  Bay  and  Lake  Superior,  two  of 
the  three  important  "  kicking  off "  places  for  the  remote 
Northwest. 

Farther  south  and  almost  a  century  later  English  traders 
and  explorers  from  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  North 
Carolina  pushed  over  the  mountain  wall  into  the  valley 


i8       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

of  the  Ohio.  First  the  colonists  and  England  fought 
France  for  possession  of  the  rich  region,  and  then  the  colo- 
nists wrested  it  from  the  IMother  Country  in  the  Revo- 
lution. And  in  1803  the  United  States  purchased  from 
France  the  vast  domain  then  known  as  Louisiana  and  ob- 
tained control  of  the  Missouri  River,  the  third  great  ave- 
nue of  approach  to  the  Northwest. 

It  was  by  this  avenue  that  Lewis  and  Clark  made  much 
of  their  famous  journey,  but  long  before  them  French  and 
British  adventurers,  pushing  out  from  Hudson  Bay  and 
Lake  Superior,  had  navigated  the  Saskatchewan,  had 
traced  the  Coppermine  and  the  Mackenzie  to  the  Arctic 
Sea,  and  had  even  crossed  the  continent  to  the  Pacific. 

It  is  of  the  deeds  and  adventures  of  these  discoverers 
that  we  shall  proceed  to  tell. 


CHAPTER  III 

PIERRE    RADISSON    AND    HOW    HIS    EXPLORATIONS    LEP   TO 
THE  FOUNDING  OF  THE  HUDSON'S   BAY  COMPANY 

In  the  ancient  town  of  St.  Malo  on  the  coast  of  western 
France  there  was  born,  about  the  year  1636,  a  child  who 
is  known  in  history  as  Pierre  Esprit  Radisson.  In  1651 
his  relatives  emigrated  to  Canada  and  settled  at  the  little 
post  of  Three  Rivers  on  the  St.  Lawrence.  War  with 
the  bloodthirsty  Iroquois  was  raging,  and  bands  of  the 
hostiles  prowled  almost  constantly  about  the  post,  but 
one  spring  morning  Radisson,  then  only  sixteen,  and  two 
other  youths  ventured  beyond  the  walls  of  the  post  to 
shoot  ducks.  After  killing  some  game  the  warning  given 
by  a  herdsman  so  alarmed  two  of  them  that  they  turned 
back,  but  Radisson,  laughing  at  his  comrades'  fears,  kept 
on  until  he  had  shot  more  ducks  than  he  could  carry. 
Hiding  some  of  the  game  in  hollow  trees,  he  started  for 
the  post,  only  to  come  upon  the  scalped  remains  of  his 
two  comrades.  Soon  half  a  hundred  Iroquois  dashed 
upon  him,  and,  though  he  resisted,  he  was  quickly  dis- 
armed and  bound. 

The  captive  fully  expected  to  be  tortured  to  death,  but 
his  captors,  struck  by  his  youth  and  courage,  painted  him 
with  red  and  black  paint,  dressed  his  hair  in  the  Indian 
fashion,  and  took  him  unharmed  to  their  village  on  the 
Mohawk,  where  he  was  adopted  into  the  tribe.  Under 
their  tutelage  he  learned  woodcraft  as  only  few  men  ex- 
cept the  savage  can  know  it.    Once,  with  a  captive  Algon- 

19 


20       TRATLMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

quin,  he  slew  three  Iroquois  and  attempted  to  escape, 
but,  when  almost  in  sight  of  Three  Rivers,  the  Algonquin 
was  killed  and  Radisson  was  retaken.  He  was  tortured 
and  was  saved  from  a  horrible  death  only  by  the  inter- 
cession of  the  warrior  and  squaw  who  had  adopted  him. 
Next  year  he  accompanied  a  war  party  on  a  raid  against 
the  Eries  and  won  favor  by  his  valor.  Finally,  after  two 
years  of  captivity,  he  managed  to  escape  to  Fort  Orange, 
now  Albany,  where  kindly  Dutchmen  secreted  him  and 
finally  enabled  him  to  reach  New  Amsterdam  and  then 
Europe. 

Radisson  soon  returned  to  New  France,  where  he  was 
welcomed  as  one  returned  from  the  grave.  During  the 
next  few  years  he  had  other  thrilling  experiences  among 
the  Iroquois.  Then  in  1658,  the  year  Oliver  Cromwell 
died  and  more  than  a  score  of  years  before  William  Penn 
founded  Pennsylvania,  he  set  out  with  his  sister's  hus- 
band, Sieur  des  Groseillers,  on  an  expedition  beyond  the 
Great  Lakes.  After  a  narrow  escape  from  the  Iroquois 
along  the  Ottawa  they  reached  Green  Bay  on  the  west 
side  of  Lake  Michigan.  A  war  party  of  Iroquois  pene- 
trated even  to  that  remote  region,  but  Radisson  led  a  party 
of  warriors  and  slew  the  raiders  to  the  last  man.  Thence 
the  explorers  penetrated  to  the  Mississippi,  ten  years  be- 
fore Marquette  and  Joliet  reached  it,  and  perhaps  even 
to  the  Missouri,  visiting  or  hearing  of  strange  tribes — the 
Sioux,  the  Mandans,  the  Assiniboines,  'the  Crees,  and 
others — seeing  many  wonderful  sights,  and  winning  the 
honor,  long  obscured,  of  being  the  first  white  men  to 
penetrate  into  the  Northwest  beyond  the  Great  Lakes. 
Finally  they  returned  to  Montreal  and  Quebec  with  a  rich 
cargo  of  furs. 

Radisson  and  Groseillers  now  became  eager  to  find  a 


RADISSON  AND  THE  COMPANY  21 

way  to  the  Sea  of  the  North — Hudson  Bay — of  which 
they  had  heard  vague  reports.  But  New  France  at  this 
time  regulated  the  fur  trade  by  license,  and  the  corrupt 
governor,  D'Avaugour,  refused  to  grant  them  a  license 
unless  they  would  give  him  half  the  profits.  They  re- 
fused, and,  slipping  away  from  Three  Rivers  in  the  night, 
joined  Indians  from  the  Upper  Country.  Repeatedly 
they  had  to  fight  Iroquois  war  parties  along  the  way,  but 
in  the  autumn  they  reached  Lake  Superior,  coasted  along 
the  south  shore  past  the  Pictured  Rocks,  and  somewhere 
in  the  region  northwest  of  the  lake  "  built  themselves  the 
first  fort  and  the  first  fur  post  between  the  Missouri  and 
the  North  Pole."  This  was  in  1661,  and  the  nearest 
settlement  of  white  men  was  probably  two  thousand 
miles  away. 

It  was  impossible  for  two  men  to  keep  watch  at  night, 
so  Radisson,  ever  ready  in  expedients,  rigged  up  a  series 
of  little  bells  about  the  hut,  and  these  bells  were  fastened 
to  strings  in  such  a  way  that  any  man  or  animal  running 
against  the  strings  would  start  the  bells  to  tinkling.  Often 
the  sleepers  were  awakened  by  animals  that  had  run 
against  the  strings,  but  luckily  the  Indians  never  at- 
tempted to  surprise  them. 

The  Indians,  in  fact,  showed  themselves  very  friendly, 
being  eager  to  trade  their  furs  for  guns,  knives,  beads, 
and  other  gewgaws  dear  to  the  savage  heart.  Friendly 
relations  were  established  with  the  Saulteaux,  or  Ojibwas, 
the  Crees,  and  other  tribes.  The  two  explorers  spent  the 
winter  in  a  great  Cree  encampment.  The  hunting  proved 
bad,  and  many  of  the  Indians  starved  to  death.  Finally 
some  Sioux,  who  were  anxious  to  trade  with  the  white 
men,  brought  timely  supplies  of  food.  Radisson  and  his 
partner  took  back  to  their  post  a  great  store  of  furs. 


22       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

That  summer  the  explorers  traveled  northward  along 
the  rivers  with  their  Cree  friends  and  seem  to  have  reached 
Hudson  Ray,  though  whether  or  not  they  did  so  is  a  mat- 
ter of  dispute.  Finally,  in  the  spring  of  1663,  the  two 
returned  to  the  Lake  Superior  country,  and  thence  made 
their  way  to  Montreal,  accompanied  by  hundreds  of  their 
Indian  friends,  bringing  many  canoe  loads  of  furs.  A  dif- 
ferent governor  now  ruled  New  France,  but  he  caused 
Radisson  and  Groseillers  to  be  so  heavily  fined  that  only 
a  pittance  was  left  to  show  for  their  efforts. 

Disgusted  by  this  and  later  mistreatment,  the  two  ex- 
plorers fled  to  Nova  Scotia  and  thence  to  Boston.  Efforts 
to  reach  Hudson  Bay  by  sea  failed  disastrously,  but  in 
Boston  the  two  Frenchmen,  now  almost  penniless,  became 
acquainted  with  Sir  George  Cartwright,  and  this  noble- 
man, who  had  great  influence  at  the  English  court,  per- 
suaded them  to  go  with  him  to  England.  They  were  cap- 
tured on  the  way  by  a  Dutch  cruiser  and  were  landed  in 
Spain,  but  finally  reached  London. 

The  explorers  were  received  by  King  Charles  II  and 
were  granted  a  small  stipend  by  him,  but  war  and  a  great 
plague  delayed  the  fulfilment  of  vague  promises  made  by 
the  court.  Sir  George  Cartwright  did  what  he  could  for 
them,  and  finally  the  famous  Prince  Rupert  become  inter- 
ested in  their  plans.  As  a  dashing  "youth  Rupert  had  led 
the  Royalist  cavaliers  of  Charles  II  against  the  Round- 
heads in  England's  great  Civil  War,  and  he  was  now 
interested  in  the  sea  and  exploration.  Two  ships  were 
fitted  out  to  go  to  Hudson  Bay.  The  one  bearing  Radis- 
son was  so  badly  damaged  by  a  storm  that  it  had  to  turn 
back,  but  the  other,  which  carried  Groseillers,  reached 
Rupert  River  on  James  Bay  and  returned  the  next  year, 
heavily  laden  with  a  rich  cargo  of  furs. 


RADISSON  AND  THE  COMPANY  23 

The  profits  were  so  great  that  a  group  of  rich  and 
powerful  men  obtained,  in  1670,  from  the  king  a  royal 
charter  for  "  The  Gentlemen  Adventurers  Trading  to 
Hudson's  Bay."  Thus  was  formed  the  famous  Hudson's 
Bay  Company,  now  the  oldest  corporation  in  the  world. 
Prince  Rupert  was  the  first  governor.  The  Company 
received  a  monopoly  on  all  the  trade  in  the  Hudson  Bay 
region,  and  their  power  ultimately  was  exercised  over  a 
region  as  large  as  Europe. 

For  two  centuries  and  a  half  the  Company  has  con- 
tinued to  do  business.  It  has  surrendered  some  of  its 
special  privileges,  but  its  fur  posts  still  dot  the  shores  of 
rivers  and  lakes  in  the  Canadian  Northland,  while  it  has 
great  department  stores  in  the  large  cities.  Its  business 
is  still  immensely  profitable,  and  travelers  in  Canada 
soon  become  familiar  with  its  initials  on  freight  packages 
and  elsewhere — "  H.  B.  C,"  which  the  waggish  interpret 
as  meaning  "  Here  before  Christ." 

The  later  history  of  Radisson  was  a  checkered  one. 
He  lost  favor  with  his  English  patrons,  and  returned  to 
the  service  of  France  and  waged  war  against  the  Com- 
pany he  had  helped  to  found.  Then  he  grew  dissatisfied 
again,  and  once  more  entered  the  service  of  the  Company. 
The  last  years  of  the  old  Pathfinder  were  spent  in  London 
as  a  pensioner  of  the  Company. 

In  the  long  series  of  wars  between  England  and  France 
in  the  century  following  the  founding  of  the  Company 
its  posts  were  often  captured  by  French  raiders,  but  they 
were  always  retaken  or  else  were  restored  when  peace 
was  declared.  Sometimes  the  Company  experienced  lean 
periods,  but,  on  the  whole,  it  was  prosperous  and  paid 
large  dividends  to  its  lucky  stockholders. 

The  Company  established  posts  at  the  mouths  of  the 


24       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Churchill,  Nelson,  Albany,  and  Rupert  rivers,  and  else- 
where on  the  shore  of  Hudson  and  James  bays,  but  it 
made  no  effort  to  colonize  the  country,  for  that  would 
have  been  to  defeat  its  prime  object  of  obtaining  furs. 
The  wars  with  France  forced  the  Company  to  build  strong 
forts  which,  considering  the  remoteness  of  the  region  in 
which  they  stood,  were  sometimes  of  immense  size.  That 
called  Fort  Prince  of  Wales,  at  the  mouth  of  Churchill 
River,  was  about  three  hundred  yards  square,  with  walls 
of  hammer-dressed  stone,  thirty  feet  thick  at  the  bottom 
and  twenty  at  the  top,  and  mounting  forty  cannon. 
Rarely,  if  ever,  however,  did  these  forts  have  sufficient 
men  to  man  them.  When  La  Perouse  appeared  before 
Fort  Prince  of  Wales  in  1782  there  were  not  enough 
trained  men  within  to  work  a  single  gun,  and  the  com- 
mander, Samuel  Hearne,  had  to  surrender  the  place  with- 
out resistance.  The  French  did  what  they  could  to  de- 
stroy the  fort,  and  it  was  never  again  reoccupied.  A  hun- 
dred and  eleven  years  later  a  Canadian  explorer,  J.  W. 
Tyrrell,  visited  the  ruins  and  wrote  of  them: 

"  As  La  Perouse  left  the  Fort,  so  did  we  find  it.  For 
the  most  part  the  walls  were  still  solid,  though  from  be- 
tween their  great  blocks  of  granite  the  mortar  was  crum- 
bling. The  guns,  spiked  and  dismounted,  were  still  to 
be  seen  lying  about  on  the  ramparts  and  among  the  fallen 
masonry.  In  the  bastions,  all  of  which  were  standing, 
were  to  be  seen  the  remains  of  walls  and  magazines,  and 
in  the  centre  of  the  fort  stood  the  walls  of  the  old  build- 
ing in  which  Hearne  and  his  men  had  lived.  The  charred 
ends  of  roof-beams  were  still  attached  to  its  walls,  where, 
undecayed,  they  had  rested  for  the  past  one  hundred  and 
eleven  years." 

For  a  century  following  its  establishment  the  Hudson's 


A 


■^ti 


rM, 


//,A  i' ',v  •'»■■  '^=2^  ■■•  .1  ''"'1  Mt  y      \^ 


-T.-^^ 


l-'roin   thawing  maJe  by  George  Catlin   in    iHs- 

A  Blackfoot  Medicine  Man 


RADISSON  AND  THE  COMPANY  25 

Bay  Company  was  generally  content  to  trade  with  the 
Indians  who  brought  furs  to  its  posts  on  the  Bay,  and  it 
made  small  effort  to  extend  its  operations  inland.  In  1691- 
92  a  man  named  Henry  Kellsey,  who  was  on  intimate 
terms  with  the  Indians  and  had  married  a  squaw,  made 
a  trip  into  the  interior,  but  where  he  actually  went  is  a 
matter  of  dispute.  Half  a  century  later,  in  1754,  Anthony 
Hendry  ascended  Hayes  River  and  other  streams  and 
finally  reached  the  broad  Saskatchewan,  where  he  found 
a  small  trading  post  established  the  previous  year  by  a 
Frenchman  named  De  La  Corne,  who  had  come  into  the 
country  by  way  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  Lake  Winnipeg. 
Hendry  traveled  westward  over  the  great  plains  to  within 
a  short  distance  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  but  did  not 
actually  see  them.  He  did  see,  however,  great  bands  of 
buffaloes,  and  helped  to  kill  many  of  them.  On  one  of 
the  hunts  two  of  his  Indian  comrades  were  horribly  man- 
gled by  a  savage  grizzly  bear,  and  Hendry's  is  one  of  the 
first  allusions  to  this  mightiest  of  all  North  American 
wild  beasts.  Far  out  on  the  plains  Hendry  paid  a  visit  to 
the  Blackfeet  and  found  them  in  possession  of  many 
horses,  in  riding  which  they  made  use  of  hair  halters, 
buffalo-skin  pads  or  saddles,  and  hide  stirrups.  But 
when  he  returned  to  Hudson  Bay  and  said  that  he  had 
seen  Indians  who  rode  horses,  he  was  laughed  at  as  a  liar. 
Of  the  interesting  and  hazardous  experiences  of  another 
man  who  sought  to  find  out  what  lay  in  the  far  interior 
we  shall  now  proceed  to  tell  in  greater  detail 


CHAPTER  IV 

SAMUEL    HEARNE   AND    HIS    SEARCH    FOR   A   COPPER   MINE 

On  December  7,  17  71,  a  small  party  of  Chipewyan  Indi- 
ans and  one  white  man  emerged  from  the  stone  gateway 
of  Fort  Prince  of  Wales  on  the  desolate  western  shore 
of  Hudson  Bay  and,  amid  a  chorus  of  shouts  from  the 
garrison  and  trading  clerks,  set  off  westward  toward  the 
unexplored  interior.  A  deep  snow  covered  the  ground, 
and  over  this  the  party  dragged  with  their  own  hands 
their  long  narrow  sledges,  for  at  that  time  these  Indians 
had  not  yet  begun  to  use  dogs  for  that  purpose.  There 
were,  however,  a  few  dogs  with  the  party,  and  these  car- 
ried heavy  loads  upon  their  backs,  as  did  also  the  hard- 
working squaws. 

The  white  man  was  an  Englishman  named  Samuel 
Hearne.  Though  only  twenty-seven,  he  had  already  seen 
much  of  the  world.  At  eleven  he  had  entered  the  British 
navy  and  fought  in  several  bloody  engagements  of  w^hat 
we  call  the  French  and  Indian  War.  Later  he  went  to 
Hudson  Bay  as  an  employee  of  the  great  fur  Company, 
and  for  several  years  was  engaged  in  trading  with  the  wild 
Eskimos  up  and  down  the  coast  north  of  Churchill  River. 
He  was  now  setting  off  on  a  most  hazardous  journey. 

Many  years  before,  when  the  Comoany's  men  first  vis- 
ited the  Bay,  they  had  found  the  Indians  in  possession  of 
weapons  and  tools  hammered  out  of  native  conper.  Now 
and  then  Indians  who  came  to  the  posts  to  trade  would 
bring  a  nugget  of  the  metal  with  them  and  when  ques- 

26 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      27 

tioned  about  where  they  had  obtained  it  would  reply  that 
it  came  from  the  shores  of  a  river  many  weeks'  journey 
to  the  northwest  and  that  there  it  existed  in  such  abun- 
dance that  ships  could  be  laden  with  it  as  easily  as  with 
boulders  from  a  beach. 

Such  stories  aroused  great  interest  among  the  white 
men,  and  repeated  efforts  were  made  to  find  the  mines. 
In  1 7 19,  for  example,  two  vessels  under  command  of 
Captain  Knight,  an  old  mariner,  eighty  years  of  age, 
sailed  northward  in  search  of  the  mine.  But  both  ships 
were  cast  away  on  the  barren  shore  of  Marble  Island 
south  of  Chesterfield  Inlet,  and  not  one  of  the  crew  was 
ever  seen  again.  Fifty  years  elapsed  before  their  fate 
became  certainly  known  through  the  finding  of  the  bot- 
toms of  the  ships,  and  cannon,  anchors,  and  other  arti- 
cles belonging  to  the  ill-fated  expedition,  as  well  as  skele- 
tons of  some  of  the  crew. 

In  1760,  the  home  authorities  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany decided  to  send  out  some  competent  person  overland 
to  search  for  the  copper  mine,  and  Hearne  was  selected 
for  the  task.  He  was  now  setting  out  on  his  third  at- 
tempt. Two  years  before,  with  two  white  companions, 
he  had  started  with  some  of  the  northern  Indians,  but 
in  a  few  weeks  the  Indians  grew  weary  of  the  journey 
and  plundered  the  white  men  of  most  of  their  possessions. 
After  great  hardships  Hearne  and  his  white  companions 
managed  to  return  to  the  fort.  Undaunted,  Hearne,  as 
soon  as  it  could  be  arranged,  again  set  out  with  another 
party  of  Indians.  Again  there  was  trouble  with  the 
guides,  while  a  high  wind  blew  over  and  broke  the  quad- 
rant with  which  the  white  man  calculated  longitude  and 
latitude,  and  he  decided  to  return.  After  nearly  nine 
months  of  adventurous  wandering  through  the  Barren 


28       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Grounds,  the  explorer  again  found  himself  back  at  the 
fort. 

But  on  the  return  trip  Hearne  had  the  good  fortune 
to  fall  in  with  a  northern  Indian  leader  named  Matonab- 
bee,  who  was  going  to  the  post  to  trade.  In  his  youth  this 
man  had  lived  for  several  years  at  the  trading  post  and 
had  learned  some  of  the  white  man's  customs,  and  to 
speak  English.  He  was  a  man  of  great  size  and  courage, 
resourceful  in  times  of  trial,  and  more  trustworthy  than 
the  other  Indians, 

Matonabbee  aided  Hearne  and  listened  to  his  story. 
He  pointed  out  mistakes  made  in  the  previous  efforts. 
For  example,  he  said  that  it  was  a  fatal  blunder  not  to 
take  any  squaws  along.  "  Women,"  said  he,  "  were  made 
for  labor;  one  of  them  can  carry,  or  haul,  as  much  as 
two  men  can  do.  They  also  pitch  our  tents,  make  and 
mend  our  clothing;  and,  in  fnct,  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  traveling  any  considerable  distance,  or  for  any  length 
of  time,  in  this  country  without  their  assistance.  Though 
they  do  everything,  they  are  maintained  at  trifling  ex- 
pense; for  as  they  always  stand  cook,  the  very  licking 
of  their  fingers  in  scarce  times  is  sufficient  for  their  sub- 
sistence." 

Matonabbee  himself  volunteered  to  conduct  Hearne  to 
the  copper  mine,  and  Hearne  gladly  accepted  the  offer. 
After  a  stay  of  less  than  two  weeks  at  the  fort  the  adven- 
turous explorer  once  more  set  out  on  the  quest.  With 
him  he  took  another  quadrant,  a  supply  of  ammunition, 
and  some  articles  to  trade  with  the  Indians. 

The  country  through  which  their  way  led  at  first  is 
flat  and  barren,  almost  destitute  of  trees,  and  with  hardly 
any  game  to  be  found.  The  Indians  always  hurried 
through  the  region  as  speedily  as  possible,  yet  often  suf- 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      29 

fered  bitterly  from  lack  of  food.  Matonabbee  had  cached 
a  supply  of  meat  at  Egg  River,  to  be  used  on  the  return 
trip.  But  when  they  reached  the  cache  after  nine  days' 
travel,  they  found  that  it  had  been  plundered  by  other 
Indians.  As  the  supply  of  food  that  had  been  brought 
from  the  fort  was  nearly  exhausted,  they  for  ten  days 
traveled  onward  across  the  barren  lands  in  a  state  of  semi- 
starvation.  For  the  last  three  days  of  that  time  they 
did  not  taste  a  morsel  of  anything,  "  except,"  says  Hearne, 
"  pipes  of  tobacco  and  a  drink  of  snow  water;  and  as  we 
walked  daily  from  morning  till  night,  and  were  all  heavy 
laden,  our  strength  began  to  fail." 

On  the  26th  of  December  the  party  finally  reached  a 
patch  of  woods  and  saw  some  caribou,  a  sort  of  wild  rein- 
deer, four  of  which  they  killed.  Next  morning  the  meat 
was  brought  to  camp,  and  the  party  halted  for  a  feast. 
The  Indians  "  never  ceased  eating  the  whole  day "  ; 
Matonabbee,  in  fact,  consumed  so  much  that  he  was  ill  for 
several  days.  With  these  Indians  it  was  always  either  a 
feast  or  a  famine,  and  the  quantity  of  meat  they  were 
able  to  consume  was  almost  incredible. 

In  the  course  of  their  long  trip  Hearne's  party,  in  his 
own  words,  "  fasted  many  times  two  whole  days  and 
nights;  twice  upwards  of  three  days;  and  once,  while  at 
She-than-nee,  near  seven  days,  during  which  we  tasted 
not  a  mouthful  of  anything,  except  a  few  cranberries, 
water,  scraps  of  old  leather,  and  burnt  bones.  On  those 
pressing  occasions  I  have  frequently  seen  the  Indians  ex- 
amine their  wardrobes,  which  consisted  chiefly  of  skin- 
clothing,  and  consider  what  part  could  best  be  spared; 
sometimes  a  piece  of  an  old,  half-rotten  deer  skin,  and 
at  others  a  pair  of  old  shoes,  were  sacrificed  to  alleviate 
extreme  hunger." 


30       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Hearne  says  that  in  times  of  famine  the  Indians  of 
the  Hudson  Bay  region  were  sometimes  reduced  to  the 
desperate  expedient  of  cannibalism.  Among  some  of  the 
tribes  it  was  generally  believed  that  when  a  person  had 
once  been  driven  to  the  necessity  of  eating  human  flesh 
he  became  so  fond  of  it  that  no  one  thereafter  was  safe 
in  his  company.  A  wccndigo,  as  one  who  was  known  to 
have  been  guilty  of  making  such  a  horrible  repast  was 
called,  was  always  thereafter  not  only  detested  but 
shunned;  sometimes  he  was  even  slain.  Hearne  relates 
that  in  the  spring  of  1775,  when  building  a  new  station 
at  Cumberland  House,  an  Indian  came  to  the  post  alone 
and  without  either  gun  or  ammunition.  The  fact  that  he 
carefully  concealed  a  bag  of  provisions  led  some  of  the 
Indians  at  the  post  to  become  suspicious,  and  they  exam- 
ined the  bag  and  pronounced  the  meat  in  it  to  be  human 
flesh,  though  in  reality  it  was  not  so  at  all.  All  Hearne 's 
authority  was  required  to  prevent  the  Indians  from  kill- 
ing "  this  poor,  inoffensive  wretch,  for  no  crime  but  that 
of  traveling  about  two  hundred  miles  by  himself,  unas- 
sisted by  firearms  for  support  in  his  journey." 

On  New  Year's  Day  Hearne's  party  reached  a  large 
lake  and  there  found  two  tents  in  which  two  Indian  men 
and  some  of  the  wives  and  children  of  the  Indians  with 
Hearne  had  been  awaiting  the  return  of  their  relatives. 
The  men  had  no  guns,  and  the  sole  dependence  for  food 
had  been  fish  and  what  few  rabbits  could  be  snared. 
The  fish  were  caught  through  holes  cut  in  the  ice;  some 
with  hooks  but  most  with  nets. 

The  Indian  nets  were  chiefly  made  out  of  small  thongs 
cut  from  raw  caribou  hides,  though  twisted  willow  bark 
was  occasionally  used,  especially  by  the  more  southern 
tribes.     The  thongs  when  dry  appeared  very  good,  but 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      31 

after  being  soaked  in  water  for  a  time  they  would  become 
so  slippery  that  when  a  large  fish  struck  the  net  the 
hitches  would  sometimes  slip  and  let  the  fish  escape. 
Furthermore,  the  nets  would  soon  rot  unless  frequently 
taken  out  of  the  water  and  dried. 

Setting  a  net  in  a  river  or  lake  that  was  frozen  over 
was  no  small  task.  The  Indians  must  first  cut  a  number 
of  holes  ten  or  twelve  feet  apart  and  reaching  far  enough 
to  stretch  the  net  to  its  full  length.  As  the  ice  was  often 
three  or  four  feet  in  thickness,  the  cutting  of  the  holes 
required  much  labor,  especially  when  the  fishermen  had 
no  better  tools  than  chisels  of  caribou  horn.  When  the 
holes  were  ready,  a  line  was  passed  under  the  ice  by 
means  of  a  pole  stuck  into  one  of  the  end  holes,  and  by 
means  of  two  forked  sticks  this  pole  was  pushed  from 
hole  to  hole  until  it  arrived  at  the  last.  The  pole  was 
then  taken  out,  and  the  net  was  made  fast  to  the  line 
and  was  hauled  under  the  ice,  a  large  stone  being  tied 
to  each  of  the  lower  corners  in  order  to  keep  the  net 
properly  expanded.  When  it  was  thought  desirable  to 
examine  the  net,  it  could  be  pulled  from  under  the  ice 
by  means  of  the  line.  When  the  fish  had  been  taken  out, 
if  there  had  been  a  catch,  the  net  could  easily  be  pulled 
back  into  place  and  secured  as  before. 

Only  in  certain  spots  in  lakes  and  rivers  could  nets 
be  set  with  any  likelihood  of  success.  In  country  with 
which  they  were  familiar  the  Indians  knew  many  of  these 
spots,  and  they  usually  managed  to  camp  close  to  them. 
Often  more  fish  would  be  caught  than  could  be  used,  and 
in  such  times  of  plenty  the  lazy  savages  would  sometimes 
neglect  to  attend  to  the  nets,  with  the  result  that  the 
fish  would  spoil  in  them.  At  other  times  no  fish  at  all, 
or  at  most  very  few,  would  be  caught  for  days  and  even 


32        TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

weeks.  More  than  once  starvation  and  death  resulted 
from  failure  of  the  fish  supply. 

When  they  made  a  new  net,  these  Indians  would  tie  a 
number  of  birds'  bills  and  feet  to  the  head  and  foot  ropes 
and  at  the  four  corners  would  fasten  the  jaws  and  toes  of 
others.  They  were  so  superstitious  as  to  believe  that  it 
would  be  useless  to  set  a  net  unless  it  was  thus  equipped. 
The  first  fish  caught  in  a  new  net  must  not  be  boiled  in 
water  but  must  be  broiled  whole  over  a  fire.  The  flesh 
was  then  carefully  taken  from  the  bones  without  dislo- 
cating the  joints,  after  which  the  skeleton  was  laid  on  the 
fire  and  consumed.  Similar  ceremonies  must  be  observed 
when  trying  a  new  hook  for  the  first  time.  It  was  also 
thought  essential  to  conceal  charms  in  the  bait  in  order 
to  attract  the  fish. 

For  many  days  the  party  traveled  leisurely  onward. 
Caribou  were  usually  abundant,  and  sometimes  the  hunt- 
ers killed  many  more  than  could  be  eaten.  The  woods 
trended  to  the  southward,  and  the  party  moved  in  that 
direction  in  order  to  avoid  the  open  Barren  Grounds, 
where  there  was  neither  firewood  nor  much  game  at  that 
season  of  the  year.  This  route,  Matonabbee  told  Hearne, 
was  the  best  course  to  follow,  but  he  said  that  when 
spring  advanced  the  caribou  would  begin  migrating  toward 
the  Arctic  coast  and  it  would  then  be  possible  to  travel 
northward  in  a  direct  line  for  the  Coppermine  River. 

The  woods  in  this  region  were  chiefly  of  spruce,  with 
some  birch  and  trembling  aspen  on  the  hillsides.  Most 
of  the  trees  were  dwarfed  and  ill-shapen,  stunted  by  the 
cold  winds  from  the  north.  There  was  also  dwarf  juniper, 
and  here  and  there,  especially  around  ponds  and  swamps, 
some  willows. 

As  the  temperature  was  usually  far  below  zero,  fire- 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      33 

wood  was  absolutely  essential.  To  have  ventured  out 
upon  the  treeless  barrens  in  that  season  would  have  been 
highly  hazardous.  But  with  plenty  of  wood  it  was  pos- 
sible to  keep  reasonably  comfortable  inside  the  tepees  of 
caribou  skin.  A  tepee  is,  as  most  readers  probably  know, 
a  sort  of  conical  tent  which  has  a  hole  left  in  the  top.  A 
fire  can  be  kept  burning  on  the  ground  in  the  center,  and 
the  smoke  emerges  from  the  orifice  at  the  top.  Cooking 
can  be  done  over  this  fire,  and  the  inmates  can  sit  or 
sleep  around  it  and  keep  warm,  though  at  times  the  smoke 
is  likely  to  be  troublesome,  especially  to  a  person  stand- 
ing or  sitting  up.  Of  all  forms  of  tents,  the  tepee  is  the 
best  suited  for  winter  in  the  wilderness.  Unless  some 
kind  of  stove  can  be  taken  along,  any  other  form  of  closed 
tent  is,  in  cold  weather,  scarcely  better  than  a  refrigerator. 
Next  to  a  tepee  a  tent  which  is  open  in  front  and  slopes 
down  toward  the  back  is  best.  A  fire  can  be  kept  burn- 
ing before  it,  and  the  heat  will  be  reflected  down  upon 
the  persons  sleeping  within.  In  one  respect  a  shelter 
tent  of  this  sort  is  superior  to  a  tepee:  it  is  much  lighter 
and  hence  can  be  more  easily  carried. 

Early  in  March,  1772,  on  the  shore  of  Whooldyah'd 
Whole,  or  Pike  Lake,  Hearne's  party  came  upon  the  en- 
campment of  some  northern  Indians  who  were  obtaining 
subsistence  by  catching  caribou  in  a  pound  or  inclosure. 
When  they  built  such  a  pound  the  Indians  would  seek  out 
a  trail  on  which  the  caribou  were  accustomed  to  travel, 
and  would  then  construct  a  fence  of  brushy  trees  around 
a  considerable  tract  of  ground.  Hearne  says  that  he  saw 
inclosures  a  mile  around  and  was  told  there  were  others 
still  more  extensive.  The  entrance  to  the  pound  was  no 
larger  than  a  common  gate,  and  the  inside  was  crowded 
with  a  maze  of  small  counter-hedges  or  fences,  in  every 


34       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

opening  of  which  strong  snares  of  hides  were  set.  The 
ends  of  these  snares  were  attached  either  to  growing  sap- 
lings or  else  to  loose  poles  of  such  a  size  and  length  that 
a  deer  could  not  drag  it  far  without  its  becoming  entangled 
among  stumps  or  trees. 

When  the  pound  was  ready,  the  Indians  would  stick  a 
row  of  small  brushwood  in  the  snow  on  either  side  of  the 
door  or  entrance,  and  these  were  continued  out  on  the 
open  plain  where  neither  stick  nor  stump  besides  was  to 
be  seen,  which  made  them  the  more  distinctly  observed. 
The  two  lines  were  ranged  in  such  a  way  as  to  form  two 
sides  of  a  long  acute  angle,  the  apex  of  which  was  at  the 
entrance  of  the  pound,  while  the  broad  opening  was  often 
two  or  three  miles  away.  Often  a  lake  or  river  would  be 
used  for  one  side;  in  fact,  the  Indians  usually  sought  a 
place  where  such  a  natural  barrier  was  available. 

The  Indians  always  pitched  their  camp  on  or  near  some 
hill  from  which  they  could  keep  watch  over  the  path 
leading  to  the  pound.  Whenever  they  saw  caribou  going 
that  way,  men,  women,  and  children  would  make  a  detour 
till  they  got  behind  the  game  and  would  then  step  into 
view  and  move  toward  the  pound  in  crescent  formation. 
The  caribou,  believing  themselves  pursued,  would  usually 
run  straight  forward  along  the  path  between  the  rows  of 
poles  until  they  entered  the  pound.  The  Indians  would 
close  in  and  block  up  the  entrance  with  some  brushy 
trees  that  had  been  made  ready  for  that  purpose.  The 
squaws  and  children  would  then  walk  round  outside  the 
inclosure  to  prevent  the  caribou  from  breaking  or  jump- 
ing the  fence,  while  the  men  were  engaged  in  spearing  the 
animals  caught  in  the  snares  and  in  shooting  with  bows 
and  arrows  those  that  remained  loose  in  the  pound. 

In  this  way  the  Indians  often  killed  even  more  game 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE    35 

than  they  could  use.  Many  families  would  sometimes 
be  able  to  obtain  a  plentiful  supply  of  food  for  a  whole 
winter  without  being  obliged  to  move  their  tents  more 
than  once  or  twice  during  the  season.  Such  an  easy 
method  of  procuring  food  was,  of  course,  wonderfully 
well  adapted  to  the  support  of  the  women  and  children 
and  of  the  old  and  the  infirm.  In  fact,  the  Indians  who 
were  content  to  live  in  this  manner  rarely  experienced 
starving  times.  It  was  those  who  traveled  long  distances 
to  trade  their  furs  at  the  posts  that  were  most  likely  to 
suffer  serious  privations  and  hardships. 

On  the  8th  of  April  the  party  came  to  a  small  lake 
with  a  long,  unpronounceable  Indian  name.  Here  they 
remained  for  about  ten  days,  drying  and  pounding  caribou 
meat  and  cutting  light  tepee  poles  for  use  on  the  Barren 
Grounds,  where  no  poles  could  be  found.  In  the  fall 
these  poles  could  also  be  converted  into  snowshoe  frames. 
Frames  for  canoes  were  also  made  and  a  store  of  birch- 
bark  collected  with  which  to  cover  them.  The  canoes 
themselves  would  not  be  made  until  the  party  arrived  at 
Clowey  Lake,  many  miles  distant.  At  the  Theley-aza 
River,  a  few  miles  further  on,  more  bark  was  obtained, 
and  a  small  party  was  sent  ahead  to  Clowey  Lake  to 
have  a  canoe  built  by  the  time  the  main  party  should 
arrive. 

An  Indian  baby  was  born  at  this  place.  The  mother 
set  out  the  same  day,  carrying  the  little  creature  and  a 
considerable  load,  besides,  on  her  back.  The  next  day 
she  had  to  drag  a  sledge  also,  and  was  often  obliged  to 
wade  knee-deep  in  water  and  wet  snow. 

Early  in  May  the  party  arrived  at  Clowey  Lake,  which 
lies  somewhere  to  the  east  of  Great  Slave  Lake,  called 
by   Hearne   Lake   Athapuscow.     Here   some   birchbark 


36       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

canoes  were  put  together,  but  all  were  small,  being  only 
twelve  or  thirteen  feet  long  and  capable  of  carrying  only 
two  persons,  one  of  whom  must  lie  down  on  the  bottom. 
The  canoes  were,  however,  very  helpful  in  crossing  rivers 
and  lakes  and  were  so  light  that  one  could  be  carried  by 
a  single  man. 

Other  Indians  had  by  this  time  joined  the  party,  and 
it  had  become  a  considerable  company.  One  reason  for 
the  increase  in  numbers  was  that  the  Indians  had  formed 
a  plan  to  attack  and  murder  the  Eskimos,  who  were  said 
to  frequent  the  lower  reaches  of  the  Coppermine  River. 
With  this  idea  in  mind  the  warriors  made  themselves 
wooden  shields,  with  which  to  ward  off  the  Eskimo 
arrows  and  spears.  Most  of  the  squaws  and  all  of  the 
children  were  left  behind  at  Clowey  Lake,  and  when  the 
start  was  made  many  of  the  warriors  also  decided  that 
they  preferred  to  remain  safely  at  that  place. 

Three  weeks  farther  northward,  on  the  banks  of  a  little 
river,  the  party  found  several  Copper  Indians,  with  whom 
Matonabbee  and  others  were  already  acquainted.  Hearne 
was  the  first  white  man  these  Indians  had  ever  seen. 

"  It  was  curious,"  writes  the  explorer,  "  to  see  how 
they  flocked  about  me,  and  expressed  as  much  desire  to 
examine  me  from  top  to  toe,  as  an  European  naturalist 
would  a  nondescript  animal.  They,  however,  found  and 
pronounced  me  to  be  a  perfect  human  being,  except  in 
the  color  of  my  hair  and  eyes:  the  former,  they  said,  was 
like  the  stained  hair  of  a  buffalo's  tail,  and  the  latter, 
being  light,  were  like  those  of  a  gull.  The  whiteness  of 
my  skin  also  was,  in  their  opinion,  no  ornament,  as  they 
said  it  resembled  meat  which  had  been  sodden  in  water 
till  all  the  blood  was  extracted.  On  the  whole,  I  was 
viewed  as  so  great  a  curiosity  in  this  part  of  the  world 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      37 

that  during  my  stay  there,  whenever  I  combed  my  head, 
some  or  other  of  them  never  failed  to  ask  for  the  hairs 
that  came  off,  which  they  carefully  wrapped  up,  saying, 
'  When  I  see  you  again,  you  shall  again  see  your  hair.'  " 

The  rest  of  the  women  were  left  at  this  place,  but  some 
of  the  Copper  Indians  joined  the  expedition.  In  passing 
through  what  were  called  the  Stony  Mountains,  however, 
the  hardships  were  so  great  that  many  of  the  Indians 
turned  back.  Several  musk-oxen  were  killed  in  this  re- 
gion, but  they  proved  so  lean  that  the  Indians  only  took 
some  strips  of  hide  for  moccasin  soles. 

In  the  middle  of  July  the  party  finally  reached  the  long- 
sought  Coppermine  River,  which  proved  to  be  much 
smaller  and  more  rapid  than  Hearne  had  been  led  to  be- 
lieve by  the  Indians.  They  were  soon  joined  by  four 
Copper  Indians,  while  three  spies  were  sent  ahead  in 
order  to  find  out  whether  there  were  any  Eskimos  farther 
down  the  stream.  In  the  afternoon  hunters  killed  several 
musk-oxen  and  some  caribou,  and  the  Indians  spent  the 
rest  of  the  day  and  night  cutting  the  meat  into  strips  and 
drying  it  before  the  fire.  To  the  white  man  they  explained 
that  this  was  done  in  order  to  have  a  plentiful  supply  of 
ready-cooked  food  so  that  the  trip  to  the  river's  mouth 
could  be  made  without  the  need  of  firing  guns  or  building 
fires  that  would  alarm  the  Eskimos. 

Two  days  later,  while  on  their  way  down  the  river,  the 
party  met  the  returning  spies,  who  reported  that  they  had 
found  five  tents  of  Eskimos  on  the  west  side  of  the  river. 
They  said  that  the  tents  were  in  a  place  where  the  task 
of  surprising  the  occupants  would  be  easy.  At  once  the 
Indians  put  their  guns,  spears,  and  wooden  shields  in 
order  for  the  attack.  Each  warrior  painted  on  the  front 
of  his  shield  some  object  like  the  sun  or  moon  or  beast 


38       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

of  prey,  and  on  inquiring  the  object  Hearne  was  told  that 
each  man  painted  on  his  shield  the  image  of  that  being 
on  which  he  relied  for  aid  in  the  coming  battle.  All  this 
painting  was  very  crudely  done,  so  that,  in  Hearne's 
words,  "  most  of  the  paintings  had  more  the  appearance 
of  a  number  of  accidental  blotches,  than  *  of  any  thing 
that  is  on  the  earth,  or  in  the  water  under  the  earth.'  " 
Hearne  viewed  all  these  preparations  with  a  sinking 
heart.  He  had  repeatedly  protested  against  the  bloody 
and  inhuman  plan,  but,  says  he,  "  so  far  were  my  intreat- 
ies  from  having  the  wished-for  effect,  that  it  was  con- 
cluded I  was  actuated  by  cowardice;  and  they  told  me, 
with  great  marks  of  derision,  that  I  was  afraid  of  the 
Eskimo.  As  I  knew  my  personal  safety  depended  in  a 
great  measure  on  the  favourable  opinion  they  entertained 
of  me  in  this  respect,  I  was  obliged  to  change  my  tone." 
Unable,  therefore,  to  prevent  the  execution  of  the  plan, 
Hearne  accompanied  the  Indians  but  played  no  part  in 
the  massacre. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  lay  of  the  land,  the  Indians 
managed  to  approach,  unsuspected,  to  within  two  hundred 
yards  of  the  Eskimo  camp,  which  lay  beneath  a  bank  at 
the  foot  of  a  considerable  falls.  Here  the  Indians  made 
final  preparations,  painting  their  faces,  tying  up  their  hair 
so  that  it  would  not  blow  in  their  eyes,  and  laying  aside 
all  unnecessary  clothing  and  other  impedimenta.  By  the 
time  they  were  finally  ready  it  was  about  one  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  but  in  that  high  latitude,  north  of  the  Arctic 
Circle,  it  was  daylight. 

They  then  rushed  forward  from  thfeir  ambuscade,  and, 
as  the  Eskimos  were  all  in  their  caribou-skin  tents,  most 
of  them  doubtless  asleep,  the  Indians  reached  the  very 
eves  of  the  tents  before  they  were  perceived.    Roused  by 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      39 

the  bloodthirsty  shouts  outside,  the  poor  Eskimos,  men, 
women,  and  children  to  the  number  of  over  twenty,  came 
rushing  out  and  attempted  to  escape.  The  relentless 
Indians  at  once  fell  upon  them  with  clubs  and  spears  and 
did  not  spare  a  single  person.  One  young  girl  of  about 
eighteen  years  fell  at  Hearne's  feet  and  twisted  her  arms 
about  his  legs  as  if  to  implore  for  mercy.  He  begged  hard 
for  her  life,  but  the  savages  only  said  jeeringly  that  he 
must  want  an  Eskimo  woman  for  a  wife,  and  continued 
to  stab  the  poor  creature  until  she  was  dead. 

"  My  situation  and  the  terror  of  my  mind  at  beholding 
this  butchery,"  writes  Hearne,  "  cannot  easily  be  con- 
ceived, much  less  described;  though  I  summed  up  all  the 
fortitude  I  was  master  of  on  this  occasion,  it  was  with 
difficulty  that  I  could  refrain  from  tears;  and  I  am  con- 
fident that  my  features  must  have  feelingly  expressed 
how  sincerely  I  was  affected  at  the  barbarous  scene  I  then 
witnessed;  even  at  this  hour  I  cannot  reflect  on  the  trans- 
actions of  that  horrid  day  without  shedding  tears." 

Hardly  had  the  Indians  completed  their  bloody  work 
when  they  noticed  seven  more  Eskimo  tents  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river.  These  tents,  fortunately,  had  hitherto 
been  hidden  from  view  by  the  bluffs  of  the  river.  As  the 
Indians  had  left  their  canoes  some  distance  up  the  river, 
they  had  no  way  of  crossing,  but  the  stream  was  only 
about  eighty  yards  wide,  so  they  began  firing  at  the 
Eskimos.     Says  Hearne: 

"  The  poor  Esquimaux  on  the  opposite  shore,  though 
all  up  in  arms,  did  not  attempt  to  abandon  their  tents; 
and  they  were  so  unacquainted  with  the  nature  of  fire- 
arms, that  when  the  bullets  struck  the  ground,  they  ran 
in  crowds  to  see  what  was  sent  them,  and  seemed  anxious 
to  examine  all  the  pieces  of  lead  which  they  found  flat- 


40       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

tened  against  the  rocks.  At  length  one  of  the  Esquimaux 
men  was  shot  in  the  calf  of  the  leg,  which  put  them  in 
great  confusion.  They  all  immediately  embarked  in  their 
little  canoes,  and  paddled  to  a  shoal  in  the  middle  of  the 
river,  which  being  more  than  a  gunshot  from  any  part 
of  the  shore,  put  them  out  of  the  reach  of  our  barbarians." 

The  victors  then  turned  their  attention  to  plundering 
the  tents  of  the  dead  Eskimos,  taking,  in  particular,  the 
copper  utensils,  such  as  hatchets,  spearheads,  and  knives, 
after  which  they  gathered  on  the  top  of  a  neighboring 
hill,  formed  a  circle,  and,  with  spears  raised  high  in  air, 
gave  many  yells  of  victory,  varied  now  and  then  by  deri- 
sive yells  at  the  surviving  Eskimos,  who  were  standing  on 
the  shoal,  almost  knee-deep  in  water. 

The  Indians  then  set  out  up  the  river,  intent  upon 
crossing  in  their  canoes  and  plundering  the  tents  on  the 
east  shore.  At  the  foot  of  the  falls,  which  are  a  sort  of 
long  cascade'  with  a  descent  of  perhaps  fifteen  feet,  they 
came  upon  an  old  Eskimo  woman  sitting  by  the  river, 
engaged  in  "  killing  salmon,  which  lay  at  the  foot  of  the 
■fall  as  thick  as  a  shoal  of  herrings.  Whether  from  the 
noise  of  the  fall,  or  a  natural  defect  in  the  old  woman's 
hearing,  it  is  hard  to  determine,  but  certain  it  is,  she  had 
no  knowledge  of  the  tragical  scene  which  had  been  so 
lately  transacted  at  the  tents,  though  she  was  not  more 
than  two  hundred  yards  from  the  place.  When  we  first 
perceived  her,  she  seemed  perfectly  at  ease,  and  was 
entirely  surrounded  with  the  proceeds  of  her  labour." 
The  red  wolves  instantly  fell  upon  the  poor  creature  and 
slew  her  in  a  most  barbarous  manner.  "  There  was 
scarcely  a  man  among  them  who  had  not  a  thrust  at  her 
with  his  spear." 

Some  of  the  Indians  then  amused  themselves  catching 


Photograph   by  the  Author 


A  Beaver  Dam 


From   ''  Franklin's   First    Journey 

Bloud}    Falls,   Coppermine   River 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      41 

fish  with  the  implement  the  murdered  woman  had  been 
using.  It  was  merely  a  pole  armed  with  a  few  spikes, 
and  the  method  of  using  it  was  to  put  it  under  the  water 
and  haul  it  up  with  a  jerk.  So  thick  were  the  fish  that  a 
single  jerk  got  usually  not  less  than  two  and  sometimes 
three  or  four.  The  fish,  however,  were  comparatively 
small,  few  being  larger  than  six  or  seven  pounds,  and 
most  of  them  much  lighter. 

The  savages  did  not  long  remain  at  the  falls  but  re- 
turned to  their  canoes,  crossed  the  river,  and  rushed  down 
upon  the  camp  on  the  east  side.  Some  of  the  Eskimos, 
thinking  their  enemies  had  left  for  good,  had  returned  to 
the  camp.  All  of  them  succeeded  in  escaping  except  one 
old  man,  who  was  so  intent  on  collecting  his  belongings 
that  he  was  caught  and  killed.  "  I  verily  believe,"  says 
Hearne,  "  that  not  less  than  twenty  had  a  hand  in  his 
death,  as  his  whole  body  was  like  a  cullender,"  The  Indi- 
ans then  plundered  the  tents  of  all  the  copper  utensils, 
which  seemed  the  only  objects  worth  taking,  after  which 
they  threw  the  tents  into  the  river,  destroyed  a  great 
quantity  of  dried  fish  and  musk-ox  flesh,  and  broke  all 
the  stone  kettles. 

Thus  ended  this  horrible  scene,  a  scene  typical  of  hun- 
dreds of  terrible  massacres  in  the  almost  constant  war- 
fare of  tribe  upon  tribe  in  the  America  of  that  day.  For 
more  than  a  century  both  the  Indians  and  the  Eskimos 
remembered  the  massacre,  and  it  was  only  in  recent  years 
that  the  long  feud  between  them  was  ended  by  white  in- 
fluence. Hearne  named  the  place  Bloody  Falls,  and  so 
it  is  called  to  this  day.  Half  a  century  later  Sir  John 
Franklin,  in  his  journey  across  the  Barren  Grounds  to 
the  Arctic,  found  at  the  falls  several  human  skulls  that 
bore  the  marks  of  violence  and  many  other  bones  strewn 


42        TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

about  on  the  ground,  relics,  no  doubt,  of  the  massacre  of 
the  long  ago. 

After  a  meal  of  fresh  salmon,  Hearne  and  some  of  the 
Indians  followed  the  river  some  miles  until  they  came  to 
where  it  emptied  into  the  sea.  They  found  the  sea  at 
the  river's  mouth  to  be  full  of  islands  and  shoals.  The 
ice  was  not  broken  up  but  was  melted  away  for  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  shore.  There  were 
no  growing  trees  whatever,  and,  the  moss  being  wet,  when 
the  Indians  shot  a  musk-ox  they  were  forced  to  eat  the 
meat  raw,  "  which  was  intolerable,  as  it  happened  to  be 
an  old  beast."  The  explorer  did  not  linger  long  on  the 
coast,  but  after  erecting  a  mark  and  taking  possession 
of  the  coast  on  behalf  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  he 
set  out  on  the  return  journey. 

On  the  way  the  party  visited  the  Copper  Mountains, 
where  were  located  the  mines  which  were  the  main 
object  of  Hearne's  long  journey.  These  mountains  lay 
about  thirty  miles  "  south  south  east "  of  the  river's 
mouth.  The  Indians  had  represented  at  the  trading  posts 
that  the  hills  were  entirely  composed  of  copper,  "  all  in 
handy  lumps,  like  a  heap  of  pebbles,"  and  that  ships 
could  come  up  the  river  from  the  sea  and  be  ballasted  with 
ore,  instead  of  stone,  "  and  that  with  the  same  ease  and 
dispatch  as  is  done  with  stone  at  Churchill  River."  But 
Hearne  had  already  seen  that  ships  probably  could  never 
reach  the  mouth  of  the  river  because  of  the  ice,  while 
the  stream  itself  in  many  places  was  not  navigable  even 
by  canoes.  Furthermore,  although  the  party  spent  four 
hours  searching  for  copper,  they  found  only  one  piece  of 
any  size.  This  weighed  about  four  pounds.  It  was  later 
sent  to  England,  and  is  still  in  the  possession  of  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company. 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      43 

Hearne  believed,  however,  that  formerly  the  metal  was 
more  abundant.  In  places  he  saw  well-beaten  paths  made 
many  years  before  by  natives  seeking  the  mineral.  Prior 
to  the  establishment  of  posts  on  Hudson  Bay  these  north- 
ern Indians  had  no  other  metal  but  copper  among  them, 
and  of  necessity  they  had  been  more  eager  to  find  it. 
Out  of  it  they  made  hatchets,  ice-chisels,  knives,  awls, 
arrowheads,  spearheads,  etc.  In  fact,  they  still  set  great 
store  by  the  metal  and  preferred  it  to  iron  for  many  pur- 
poses. 

The  Indians  had  a  strange  tradition  to  the  effect  that 
the  first  discoverer  of  the  mines  was  a  squaw,  who  had  a 
reputation  as  a  conjurer.  For  several  years  she  conducted 
parties  thither,  but  on  one  such  trip,  having  been  badly 
treated  by  the  men,  she  became  so  angry  that  she  declared 
she  would  sit  on  the  mine  till  she  sunk  into  the  ground 
and  that  all  the  copper  should  sink  with  her.  Next  year, 
when  the  Indians  came  for  more  copper,  they  found  her 
sunk  to  the  waist,  though  still  alive,  and  the  copper  was 
much  scarcer.  By  the  following  year  she  had  entirely 
disappeared,  and  thereafter  there  could  be  found  only  a 
few  scattered  pieces  of  copper,  whereas  before  it  had  lain 
about  on  the  ground  in  great  heaps  so  that  no  search  for 
it  had  been  necessary. 

The  homeward  journey  from  the  Coppermine  River 
took  eleven  months.  On  the  way  Hearne  and  his  party 
visited  Great  Slave  Lake.  There  and  elsewhere  they 
caught  great  numbers  of  fish,  some  of  the  lake  trout 
weighing  as  much  as  forty  pounds.  On  the  south  side  of 
Great  Slave  Lake  they  also  found  many  buffaloes,  and 
Hearne's  account  of  these  animals  is  the  first  mention 
of  the  northern  species  of  this  animal,  which  is  now  called 
the  wood  bison.     Strangely  enough  it  is  in  the  region 


44       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

northwest  of  this  lake  that  the  only  wild  buffaloes  now 
remain. 

Hearne  says  that  the  bulls  seemed  to  him  to  be  bigger 
than  English  oxen.  "  In  fact,  they  are  so  heavy  that 
when  six  or  eight  Indians  are  in  company  at  the  skinning 
of  a  large  bull,  they  never  attempt  to  turn  it  over  while 
entire,  but  when  the  upper  side  is  skinned,  they  cut  off 
the  leg  and  shoulder,  rip  up  the  belly,  take  out  the  intes- 
tines, cut  off  the  head,  and  make  it  as  light  as  possible, 
before  they  turn  it  to  skin  the  under  side.  The  skin  is  in 
some  places  of  an  incredible  thickness,  particularly  about 
the  neck,  where  it  often  exceeds  an  inch.  The  horns  are 
short,  black,  and  almost  straight,  but  very  thick  at  the 
roots  or  base." 

Hearne  did  not  exaggerate  the  size  of  these  great  beasts. 
In  1910  I  saw  at  Edmonton  the  unmounted  skin  of  a  bull 
that  had  been  shot  by  an  explorer  named  Harry  Radford, 
who  was  later  murdered  by  Eskimos  in  the  region  of 
Chesterfield  Inlet.  The  beast  had  weighed  almost  a  ton 
and  a  half.  The  hide,  even  when  dry,  was  almost  an 
inch  thick,  and  would  have  been  a  heavy  load  for  a  pow- 
erful man. 

The  latter  part  of  the  journey  was  through  country 
inhabited  by  moose,  and  Hearne  has  much  to  say 
about  these  great  animals,  which  are  the  biggest  of  all 
the  deer  family.  He  says  that  they  were  the  hardest  to 
kill  of  all  the  game  of  that  region.  Their  flesh  he  con- 
sidered good,  though  somewhat  coarse;  the  tongue  and 
the  gristle  of  the  nose  he  pronounces  excellent.  The  skins 
of  the  moose  were  much  used  by  the  Indians  for  mocca- 
sins, clothing,  and  tepee  covers.  The  method  employed 
to  tan  the  hides  is  described  as  follows: 

"  To  dress  those  skins  according  to  the  Indian  method, 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      45 

a  lather  is  made  of  the  brains  and  some  of  the  softest  fat 
or  marrow  of  the  animal,  in  which  the  skin  is  well  soaked, 
when  it  is  taken  out  and  not  only  dried  by  the  heat  of 
the  fire  but  hung  up  in  the  smoke  for  several  days;  it  is 
then  taken  down  and  well  soaked  and  washed  in  warm 
water  till  the  grain  of  the  skin  is  perfectly  open  and  has 
imbibed  a  sufficient  quantity  of  water,  after  which  it  is 
taken  and  wrung  as  dry  as  possible,  and  then  dried  by  the 
heat  of  a  slow  fire;  care  being  taken  to  rub  and  stretch 
it  as  long  as  any  moisture  remains  in  the  skin.  By  this 
clmple  method,  and  by  scraping  them  afterwards,  some  of 
the  moose  skins  are  made  very  delicate  both  to  the  eye 
and  the  touch." 

One  day  in  midwinter  when  some  of  the  Indians  were 
out  hunting  they  saw  the  track  of  strange  snowshoes  and 
on  following  the  trail  for  some  distance  they  found  a 
little  hut  and  in  it  a  comely  young  squaw,  sitting  alone. 
They  brought  her  to  the  tents  of  the  main  party,  and  she 
proved  to  be  of  the  Western  Dogrib  Indian  tribe.  One 
night,  two  years  before,  the  Athabasca  Indians  had  sur- 
prised the  encampment  in  which  she  was  living,  and  butch- 
ered every  soul  except  herself,  her  four-months-old  pa- 
poose, and  three  other  young  women.  She  concealed  the 
infant  in  a  bundle  of  clothing  and  in  the  darkness  it  was 
not  noticed  by  her  captors,  but  when  the  party  reached 
the  tepees  of  the  victors  the  Athabasca  squaws  began  to 
examine  the  bundle  and  discovered  the  infant.  One  of 
them  took  the  child  from  the  mother  and  barbarously  mur- 
dered it  on  the  spot. 

The  mother  was  forced  to  become  the  wife  of  one  of 
the  victors  and  was  in  most  respects  well  treated  by  him, 
but  she  was  unable  to  reconcile  herself  to  living  with  a 
people  who  had  murdered  her  child  and  relatives.  When 


46       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

a  favorable  opportunity  came,  she  fled  into  the  wilderness, 
hoping  to  return  to  her  own  people.  But  she  had  been 
taken  by  canoe  along  so  many  winding  rivers  and  across 
so  many  lakes  that  she  had  forgotten  the  homeward  way, 
and,  therefore,  made  shift  to  live  alone. 

When  she  escaped,  her  only  metal  implements  were  five 
or  six  inches  of  an  iron  hoop  made  into  a  knife,  and  an 
iron  arrowhead,  which  she  used  as  an  awl.  With  these 
poor  tools  she  managed,  however,  to  make  excellent  snow- 
shoes  and  other  useful  articles.  She  also  made  a  hut  to 
shelter  her  from  the  winter  blasts  and  contrived  to  kindle 
a  fire  by  knocking  together  two  hard  sulphurous  stones. 
This  method  of  fire-making  was,  however,  attended  with 
great  trouble  and  was  not  always  successful,  so  she  was 
careful  not  to  permit  her  fire  to  go  out  during  the  whole 
winter. 

With  her  she  had  also  succeeded  in  taking  a  few  caribou 
sinews,  and  these  she  used  in  making  snares  and  sewing 
her  clothing.  She  caught  many  rabbits,  grouse,  and 
squirrels,  and  even  contrived  to  kill  two  or  three  beavers 
and  some  porcupines.  When  discovered  she  had  a  small 
stock  of  provision  by  her,  and  had  lived  so  well  that  she 
was  in  good  health  and  condition.  When  the  deer  sinews 
were  exhausted,  she  supplied  their  place  by  twisting  to- 
gether with  great  skill  and  dexterity  the  sinews  of  rab- 
bits. With  the  skins  of  the  rabbits  she  had  made  herself 
a  warm  and  comfortable  winter  suit.  One  would  naturally 
suppose  that  a  person  in  her  forlorn  and  dangerous  situa- 
tion would  have  been  content  to  do  only  the  things  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  subsistence,  but  even  in  that  remote 
wilderness  her  feminine  instinct  for  beauty  and  adorn- 
ment had  asserted  itself.  In  the  words  of  Hearne:  "  The 
materials,  though  rude,  were  very  curiously  wrought,  and 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      47 

so  judiciously  placed,  as  to  make  the  whole  of  her  garb 
have  a  very  pleasing,  though  rather  romantic  appear- 
ance." 

Some  of  her  moments  of  leisure  from  hunting  and 
other  work  she  used  in  twisting  the  inner  rind  or  bark 
of  willows  into  small  lines,  like  net  twine.  She  had  sev- 
eral hundred  fathoms  of  this  by  her,  and  with  it  she 
intended  in  the  spring  to  make  a  fishing  net. 

Her  appearance  was  so  attractive  and  her  accomplish- 
ments as  a  worker  were  so  great  that  a  large  number  of 
her  discoverers  resolved  to  have  her  for  a  wife.  As  was 
customary  in  such  cases,  a  great  wrestling  match  took 
place,  with  the  squaw  as  the  prize  to  the  victor.  She  was 
actually  won  and  lost  by  nearly  half  a  score  different  men 
the  same  evening.  Even  Matonabbee,  who  at  this  time 
already  had  eight  wives,  would  have  entered  the  lists  had 
not  one  of  his  helpmates  raised  a  laugh  by  telling  him 
before  the  rest  that  he  already  had  too  many.  This 
greatly  enraged  Matonabbee,  and  he  struck  and  kicked 
the  poor  girl  who  dared  to  speak  out  thus  so  hard  that 
after  lingering  for  some  weeks  she  died. 

On  the  homeward  way  Hearne's  party  passed  through 
much  good  beaver  country,  and  the  Indians  spent  a  great 
deal  of  time  hunting  these  animals,  both  for  their  fur  and 
flesh.  Hearne  gives  an  extended  description  of  the  habits 
of  the  beaver,  a  description  wholly  free  of  the  fanciful 
exaggerations  common  then,  and  even  now  met  with. 

"  When  the  beaver  which  are  situated  in  a  small  river 
or  creek  are  to  be  taken,"  says  Hearne,  "  the  Indians 
sometimes  find  it  necessary  to  stake  the  river  across  to 
prevent  them  from  passing;  after  which  they  endeavour 
to  find  out  all  their  holes  or  places  of  retreat  in  the 
banks.    This  requires  much  practice  and  experience  to 


48       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

accomplish,  and  is  performed  in  the  following  manner: 
Every  man  being  furnished  with  an  ice  chisel,  lashes  it 
to  the  end  of  a  small  staff  about  four  or  five  feet  long; 
he  then  walks  along  the  edge  of  the  bank  and  keeps 
knocking  his  chisel  against  the  ice.  Those  who  are  well 
acquainted  with  that  kind  of  work  well  know  by  the 
sound  of  the  ice  when  they  are  opposite  to  any  of  the 
beavers'  holes  or  vaults.  As  soon  as  they  suspect  any, 
they  cut  a  hole  through  the  ice  big  enough  to  admit  an 
old  beaver,  and  in  this  manner  proceed  until  they  have 
found  out  all  their  places  of  retreat,  or  at  least  as  many 
of  them  as  possible.  While  the  principal  men  are  thus 
employed  some  of  the  understrappers,  and  the  women, 
are  busy  breaking  open  the  houses,  which  at  times  is  no 
easy  task;  for  I  have  frequently  known  these  houses  to 
be  five  and  six  feet  thick;  and  one  in  particular  was 
more  than  eight  feet  thick  on  the  crown.  When  the 
beavers  find  that  their  habitations  are  invaded,  they  ily 
to  their  holes  in  the  banks  for  shelter;  and  on  being  per- 
ceived by  the  Indians,  which  is  easily  done,  by  attending 
the  motion  of  the  water,  they  block  up  the  entrance  with 
stakes  of  wood,  and  then  haul  the  beaver  out  of  its  hole, 
either  by  hand,  if  they  can  reach  it,  or  with  a  large  hook 
made  for  that  purpose,  which  is  fastened  to  the  end  of  a 
long  stick." 

Beaver  were  sought  by  the  Indians  both  for  their  skins 
and  also  for  their  flesh,  which  is  very  rich  and  greasy. 
Beaver  skins  were,  in  fact,  the  main  article  of  trade,  and 
were  made  the  unit  of  value  by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany. Stamped  tokens  of  metal  or  leather  were  generally 
used  instead  of  money;  such  a  token  was  called  a  "  made 
beaver."  An  otter  skin  was  said  to  be  worth,  not  so  many 
shillings  or  pounds,  but  so  many  "  made  beaver." 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      49 

During  his  long  stay  in  the  region  about  Hudson  Bay 
Hearne  not  only  had  many  opportunities  to  study  the 
beaver  in  its  native  habitat  but  he  "  kept  several  of  them 
till  they  became  so  domesticated  as  to  answer  to  their 
name,  and  follow  those  to  whom  they  were  accustomed, 
in  the  same  manner  as  a  dog  would  do;  and  they  were 
as  much  pleased  at  being  fondled  as  any  animal  I  ever 
saw.  I  had  a  house  built  for  them,  and  a  small  piece  of 
water  before  the  door.  .  .  .  When  the  Indians  were  ab- 
sent for  any  considerable  time,  the  beaver  discovered 
great  signs  of  uneasiness,  and  on  their  return  shewed  equal 
marks  of  pleasure,  by  fondling  on  them,  crawling  into 
their  laps,  laying  on  their  backs,  sitting  erect  like  a  squir- 
rel, and  behaving  to  them  like  children  who  see  their 
parents  but  seldom. 

"  In  general,  during  the  winter  they  lived  on  the  same 
food  as  the  women  did,  and  were  remarkably  fond  of  rice 
and  plum  pudding:  they  would  eat  partridges  and  fresh 
venison  very  freely,  but  I  never  tried  them  with  fish, 
though  I  have  heard  they  will  at  times  prey  on  them. 
In  fact,  there  are  few  of  the  granivorous  animals  that  may 
not  be  brought  to  be  carnivorous.  It  is  well  known  that 
our  domestic  poultry  will  eat  animal  food:  thousands  of 
geese  that  come  to  London  market  are  fattened  on  tal- 
low craps;  and  our  horses  in  Hudson  Bay  would  not  only 
eat  all  kinds  of  animal  food,  but  also  drink  freely  of  the 
wash  or  pot  liquor  intended  for  the  hogs.  And  we  are 
assured  by  the  most  authentic  authors  that  in  Iceland  not 
only  black  cattle,  but  also  the  sheep,  are  almost  entirely 
fed  on  fish  and  fish  bones  during  the  winter  season." 

Lest  it  be  supposed  that  Hearne  is  "  nature  faking  "  in 
these  remarks,  I  will  add  that  even  to-day  it  is  so  difficult 
to  obtain  forage  at  some  of  the  northern  Hudson's  Bay 


50       TRAIOIAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

posts  that  it  is  not  uncommon  to  feed  cows  during  the 
winter  on  dried  fish. 

On  the  last  day  of  June,  1772,  Hearne  at  last  reached 
Fort  Prince  of  Wales,  after  an  absence  of  almost  nine- 
teen months.  During  that  time  he  had  lived  almost  pre- 
cisely the  same  as  the  Indians.  He  says  that  of  all  their 
various  kinds  of  food  he  had  partaken  of  every  sort,  no 
matter  how  disgusting,  save  only  lice  and  the  warbles  or 
grubs  in  the  backs  of  caribou. 

His  journey  had  not  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  any 
rich  mine  of  copper,  but  it  had  put  an  end  to  any  linger- 
ing notion  that  there  could  be  a  Northwest  Passage  by 
sea  from  the  western  side  of  Hudson  Bay  to  the  Pacific. 
He  wrote  an  account  of  his  trip,  and  this  was  published 
at  London,  in  1795,  under  title  of  A  Journey  jrom  Prince 
of  Wale's  Fort,  in  Hudson  Bay,  to  the  Northern  Ocean. 
For  more  than  a  century  this  book  remained  the  chief 
source  of  information  regarding  a  large  part  of  the  Bar- 
ren Grounds;  even  to-day  some  of  the  places  Hearne 
visited  have  never  been  seen  by  another  white  man.  The 
volume  will  always  remain  a  classic  on  the  habits  and 
customs  of  the  Indians  of  that  region. 

Hearne  received  from  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  a 
reward  of  two  hundred  pounds  for  making  the  journey, 
and  in  1775,  after  the  death  of  Moses  Norton,  the  half- 
breed  governor  at  Fort  Prince  of  Wales,  he  became  the 
head  of  that  post.  Seven  years  later  the  fort  was  cap- 
tured by  a  French  expedition  under  Admiral  La  Perouse, 
and  Hearne  was  carried  to  Europe,  but  was  soon  released. 
After  peace  was  made  he  returned  to  Hudson  Bay  for  a 
few  years.    He  died  in  England  in  1792. 

A  last  word  should  be  said  regarding  the  fate  of  Maton- 
abbee,  the  forceful  and  energetic  chieftain  to  whom  the 


HEARNE'S  SEARCH  FOR  A  COPPER  MINE      51 

success  of  the  expedition  was  largely  due.  Though  hot- 
tempered  and  a  Solomon  in  the  matter  of  wives,  this  leader 
displayed  great  fidelity  and  resourcefulness  on  the  trip, 
and  Hearne  pays  him  a  high  tribute.  He  became  head  of 
all  the  northern  Indians,  and  for  some  years,  says  Hearne, 
"  continued  to  render  great  services  to  the  Company  by 
bringing  a  greater  quantity  of  furs  to  their  factory  at 
Churchill  River  than  any  other  Indian  ever  did  or  ever 
will  do."  But  the  news  of  the  capture  of  the  fort  broke 
his  heart.  He  never  afterwards  "  reared  his  head  "  and 
finally  in  his  despondency  hanged  himself.  In  the  fol- 
lowing winter  six  of  his  wives  and  four  of  his  children 
died  of  starvation. 


CHAPTER  V, 

M.  DE  LA  VERENDRYE  AND  HIS  SEARCH  FOR  THE 
WESTERN   SEA 

In  the  period  following  Pierre  Radisson's  last  overland 
trip  Marquette,  Joliet,  and  La  Salle  explored  the  Missis- 
sippi, but  for  seventy  years  no  other  man  penetrated  so 
far  beyond  the  Great  Lakes  as  Radisson  had  done.  Then 
came  another  bold  adventurer  who  had  dreamed  a  dream. 
His  name  was  Pierre  Gaultier  de  Varennes  de  la  Veren- 
drye,  and  he  was  born  in  1686  at  Three  Rivers,  Radis- 
son's old  home  on  the  St.  Lawrence.  At  fourteen  he  re- 
solved that  he  would  be  a  discoverer,  but  for  years  he 
fought  in  the  wars  in  both  America  and  Europe  and 
traded  in  the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes.  Not  until  he  was 
forty-four  or  forty-five  years  did  he  obtain  his  long- 
sought  opportunity. 

While  stationed  at  the  lonely  fur  post  of  Nepigon,  north 
of  Lake  Superior,  he  heard  from  the  Indians  vague  tales 
of  a  westward  flowing  river,  of  a  vast  plain  devoid  of 
timber  and  covered  with  "  large  herds  of  cattle,"  and  an 
old  warrior  drew  upon  a  strip  of  birchbark  a  map  of  rivers 
flowing  into  a  "  Western  Sea."  On  fire  to  discover  the 
way  thither,  De  la  Verendrye  hurried  to  Quebec,  obtained 
the  patronage  of  the  governor  of  New  France,  and  per- 
suaded merchants  to  furnish  a  supply  of  trade  goods  for 
the  venture. 

With  half  a  hundred  followers,  including  his  three  sons, 
all  boys  in  their  teens,  he  set  out  in  birch-bark  canoes 

52 


VERENDRYE'S  SEARCH  53 

from  Montreal  in  June,  1731.  Seventy-eight  days  of 
hard  labor  brought  them  to  Kaministiqua,  on  the  north- 
western shore  of  Lake  Superior,  the  farthest  fur  post  then 
existing.  From  there  a  party,  of  which  the  explorer's 
son  Jean  was  a  member,  pushed  on  and  established  Fort 
St.  Pierre  on  the  south  side  of  Rainy  Lake,  and  in  July 
of  the  next  year  De  la  Verendrye  himself  reached  that 
post. 

There  followed  four  anxious,  feverish  years.  The  mer- 
chants at  home  were  discontented  with  the  financial  re- 
turns of  the  venture,  and  in  1634  the  explorer  made  the 
long  journey  back  to  Quebec  to  encourage  them  to  con- 
tinue to  back  him.  Young  Jean  de  la  Verendrye  pushed 
on  to  Lake  Winnipeg  and  on  its  flat  shore  built  a  post 
named  Fort  Maurepas.  The  winter  of  1735-36  was  a 
hard  one  in  these  little  northwestern  posts,  and  in  the 
spring  young  Jean  set  out  with  three  canoes  manned  by 
twenty  voyageurs  for  IMackinac  to  bring  supplies  of  food 
and  ammunition. 

On  the  way  down  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  they  were  at- 
tacked upon  an  island  by  a  large  war  band  of  Sioux.  Not 
one  of  the  white  men  escaped.  Some  days  later  a  band 
of  friendly  Ojibwas  found  the  place  of  massacre.  Around 
the  ashes  of  the  campfires  lay  the  mangled  bodies  of  the 
slain.  The  headless  body  of  young  Verendrye  had  been 
mockingly  decorated  with  porcupine  quills.  Some  of  the 
heads  of  the  dead  men  had  been  placed  upon  a  beaver 
skin.  The  body  of  Father  Aulneau,  a  young  missionary 
who  had  come  only  recently  from  France,  was  on  its 
knees,  as  if  at  prayer,  with  the  right  arm  uplifted  as  if 
invoking  the  aid  of  God, 

De  la  Verendrye  spent  the  winter  of  1737-38  at  Que- 
bec, but  by  the  following  September  he  was  back  in  the 


54       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

region  of  the  present  Manitoba,  and  at  the  junction  of 
Red  River  and  the  Assiniboine  established  Fort  Rouge, 
on  the  present  site  of  Winnipeg.  Thence  he  set  out  over- 
land with  friendly  Assiniboines  and  visited  the  Mandan 
towns  on  the  Missouri.  But  he  was  disappointed  in  his 
hope  of  hearing  from  them  any  definite  information  re- 
garding his  will-o'-the-wisp,  the  Western  Sea.  New  posts 
were  established  by  the  explorer's  sons  near  Lake  Mani- 
toba and  on  the  Saskatchewan,  but  financial  troubles  were 
pressing  at  Montreal,  and  again  the  father  had  to  jour- 
ney thither. 

Finally,  in  the  spring  of  1742,  the  two  brothers,  Pierre 
and  Francois,  set  out  with  two  French  followers  for  the 
Missouri  country.  At  the  Mandan  towns,  after  great 
difficulty,  they  obtained  the  services  of  guides,  who  prom- 
ised to  conduct  them  westward.  For  weeks  they  rode 
over  the  rolling  plains,  seeing  many  coyotes,  antelopes, 
and  prairie  dogs,  but  finding  no  traces  of  human  exist- 
ence. In  fright  one  of  the  Mandan  guides  deserted  and 
turned  back.  In  the  fifth  week  the  explorers  came  upon 
a  village  of  Crows,  who  received  them  well  and  furnished 
fresh  guides.  The  Crows  passed  them  on  to  the  Horse 
Indians,  and  the  Horse  Indians,  in  turn,  guided  them  to 
the  Bows,  who  took  them  with  them  on  a  war  party 
against  the  Snakes. 

No  Snakes  were  found,  but  on  New  Year's  Day,  1743, 
the  explorers  saw  far  before  them  the  distant,  jagged  peaks 
of  the  Bighorn  Mountains,  one  of  the  eastern  ranges  of 
the  Rockies.  A  thousand  miles  of  mountainous  wilder- 
ness still  lay  between  them  and  the  Western  Sea  of  their 
father's  dreams,  but  the  deed  they  had  done  was  worth 
while.  Half  a  century  passed  before  any  white  man  went 
beyond  their  "  farthest  West." 


From  drawing  made  by   George  Catlin   in  183^ 

A  Mandan  Chief 


VERENDRYE'S  SEARCH  55 

As  for  the  father  himself,  he  lived  six  more  troubled 
years,  harassed  by  creditors  and  rival  fur  traders.  Finally, 
in  the  winter  of  1749,  while  planning  a  new  quest,  he  died 
suddenly  at  Montreal. 

Like  many  another  pioneer  his  dream  had  brought  him 
only  trouble  and  disaster,  but  his  name  and  those  of  his 
heroic  sons  should  be  placed  high  on  the  roll  of  those 
daring  spirits  who  have  braved  danger  and  discomforts 
to  widen  the  realm  of  human  knowledge. 


CHAPTER  VI 

HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  ARCTIC 

A  RAPACIOUS  governor  of  New  France  prevented  the  sons 
of  La  Verendrye  from  continuing  the  work  of  explora- 
tion and  even  from  trading  in  the  vast  region  which  the 
efforts  of  the  family  had  made  known,  but  more  favored 
traders  were  permitted  to  enter  in.  A  considerable  com- 
merce in  furs  developed,  and  posts  were  maintained  along 
Red  River,  Assiniboine  River,  Lake  Winnipeg,  and  the 
lower  Saskatchewan.  Minor  explorers  also  made  some 
additions  to  geographical  information. 

The  conquest  of  New  France  by  the  British  in  the 
French  and  Indian  War,  and  Pontiac's  uprising,  which 
soon  followed,  put  a  stop  for  a  time  to  trading  operations 
from  Canada  to  the  far  Northwest.  The  Indians  of  that 
region  were  forced  to  do  without  European  goods  or  to 
send  their  furs  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  posts  on 
Hudson  Bay.  But,  about  1765,  adventurous  English 
traders  began  to  push  westward  from  Mackinac  beyond 
Lake  Superior,  and  the  great  profits  they  realized  quickly 
caused  imitation.  One  of  the  most  notable  of  these  early 
English  traders  was  Alexander  Henry,  the  elder,  who 
spent  many  years  in  the  region  in  question  and  left  a  book 
of  Travels,  in  which  he  graphically  describes  some  of 
his  experiences. 

Hitherto,  as  already  stated,  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany had  remained  content  to  carry  on  its  trade  from 
posts  on  the  shores  of  the  great  inland  sea  from  which  it 

.^6 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  ARCTIC  57 

derived  its  name.  Thither  came  the  Indians  with  their 
peltries,  and  the  tribes  that  resided  near  at  hand  acted 
as  middlemen  for  other  tribes  that  were  more  remote. 
Under  this  system  it  was  not  necessary  for  the  traders 
to  venture  far  from  their  comfortable  posts,  and  they 
were  spared  many  of  the  hardships  and  dangers  experi- 
enced by  their  successors. 

The  officials  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  regarded 
the  traders  who  entered  by  way  of  the  Great  Lakes  as 
interlopers  and  spoke  of  them  contemptuously  as  "  ped- 
lars." But  the  pedlars  were  keen  business  men  and  by 
carrying  their  goods  right  to  the  Indians  they  soon  greatly 
diminished  the  number  of  aborigines  who  made  the  long 
journey  to  the  Bay  to  trade.  In  consequence  the  old 
Company  either  had  to  sit  and  see  its  once  lucrative 
commerce  disappear,  or  adopt  new  methods.  The  latter 
course  was  followed.  Agents  were  sent  up  the  Hayes, 
Albany,  York,  and  other  rivers,  and  new  posts  were  estab- 
lished in  the  interior.  Of  these  one  of  the  most  important 
was  Cumberland  House,  which  was  built  by  our  old  friend 
Hearne  on  the  lower  Saskatchewan,  two  years  after  his 
return  from  the  Coppermine.  The  goods  for  these  posts 
were  sent  in  by  way  of  Hudson  Bay. 

So  great  a  scramble  for  the  trade  of  the  Plains  Indians 
soon  developed  that  there  were  scanty  profits  for  any  of 
the  traders.  Furthermore,  the  smallpox  got  among  the 
Indians  and  "  destroyed  by  its  pestilential  breath  whole 
families  and  tribes."  Feeling  the  need  of  mutual  co- 
operation, some  of  the  traders  from  Canada  united  their 
interests  and  formed,  in  the  winter  of  1763-64,  the  North- 
west Company,  a  concern  that  for  years  fought  a  bitter 
battle  with  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 

Most  of  the  adventures  in  the  service  of  the  North- 


58        TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

west  Company  were  men  of  limited  ideas,  with  ambitions 
that  rarely  rose  above  a  beaver  skin;  but  now  and  then 
we  meet  with  a  man  of  higher  type.  Such  an  one  was 
Alexander  Mackenzie,  who,  in  1789,  was  chief  trader  at 
Fort  Chipewyan,  a  post  that  had  been  established  on  the 
southwest  shore  of  Lake  Athabasca,  seventy  days'  travel 
from  Lake  Superior. 

Mackenzie  was  a  native  of  Scotland  and  was  then  not 
yet  thirty  years  old.  He  had  served  an  apprenticeship 
of  five  years  in  a  Montreal  counting-house,  had  spent 
another  year  in  the  pine  woods  of  Michigan  trading  with 
the  Indians,  and  had  then  been  sent  by  the  Northwest 
Company  to  the  Northwest.  Big  and  strong  of  body, 
bold  and  adventurous,  a  man  undaunted  by  obstacles, 
the  unexplored  regions  that  lay  to  the  north  and  west  of 
him  were  a  resistless  challenge  to  his  ambitious  spirit. 
And,  first  of  all,  he  was  eager  to  find  out  what  became  of 
the  river  that  gave  outlet  to  the  great  lake  on  which 
he  was  stationed.  As  soon  as  possible  he  organized  an 
expedition  to  solve  the  riddle. 

At  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  June  3,  1789 — a  time 
when  American  statesmen  were  drafting  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States — the  party  set  out  on  its  dangerous 
quest.  Mackenzie  himself  rode  in  a  big  canoe,  the  crew 
of  which  consisted  of  a  German  and  four  French  Cana- 
dians, two  of  whom  were  accompanied  by  their  Indian 
wives,  who  would  be  useful  as  cooks  and  to  make  mocca- 
sins. In  a  small  canoe  was  a  Chipewyan  Indian  who  went 
by  the  name  of  "  English  Chief,"  and  his  two  wives.  In 
a  second  small  canoe  were  two  young  warriors.  Macken- 
zie was  taking  these  Indians  to  serve  in  the  twofold  ca- 
pacity of  hunters  and  interpreters.  A  second  large  canoe, 
in  charge  of  M.  Le  Roux,  one  of  the  Company's  clerks, 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  ARCTIC  59 

carried  some  of  the  baggage  for  the  main  expedition,  and 
also  a  supply  of  trading  goods;  it  was  the  intention  that 
this  canoe  should  part  company  with  the  rest  early  in  the 
voyage  and  trade  with  the  Indians  about  Great  Slave 
Lake. 

After  going  twenty-one  miles  upon  the  open  lake  the 
party  entered  one  01  the  outlets,  of  which  there  were 
several,  and  seven  miles  down  this  stream  the  party 
landed  to  camp  for  the  night.  While  the  squaws  and 
part  of  the  men  pitched  the  skin  lodges  and  made  camp, 
others  dragged  out  the  big  canoe  upon  the  beach  and 
smeared  hot  spruce  gum  over  the  seams  in  order  to  stop 
the  leaks.  This  is  a  task  of  which  we  find  frequent  men- 
tion in  the  diaries  of  voyageurs  traveling  in  bark  canoes, 
for  the  "  birchbark,"  though  glorified  in  song  and  story, 
had  many  weaknesses. 

While  these  various  tasks  were  going  forward  one  of 
the  hunters,  with  his  flintlock  gun  loaded  with  large  shot, 
was  fortunate  enough  to  kill  a  wild  goose  and  a  couple  of 
ducks.  No  opportunity  thus  to  eke  out  the  larder  was 
ever  lost.  With  them  the  party  carried  a  supply  of  food, 
chiefly  pemmican,  which  was  composed  of  dried  buffalo 
meat  pounded  up  and  mixed  with  fat,  but  Mackenzie  was 
well  aware  that  the  supply  would  become  exhausted  long 
before  he  reached  his  goal,  unless  most  of  the  livelihood 
could  be  picked  up  along  the  way. 

On  the  second  day  the  voyageurs  passed  the  mouth  of 
the  mighty  Peace  River,  up  whose  mile-wide  stream  Mac- 
kenzie gazed  with  longing  eyes.  The  next  few  days  were 
spent  in  descending  Slave  River,  as  the  stream  that  con- 
nects Lake  Athabasca  and  Great  Slave  Lake  is  called,  and 
much  trouble  was  experienced  in  carrying  round  the  many 
bad  rapids  which  abound  in  this  stream.     This  region 


6o       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

was  already  known  to  the  white  men,  and  three  years 
before  five  men  of  a  trading  party  had  been  drowned 
while  trying  to  run  one  of  these  rapids  with  a  cargo  of 
goods.  Mackenzie's  party  did  not  succeed  in  getting  by 
this  stretch  of  bad  water  without  experiencing  some  loss. 
A  squaw  who  was  managing  one  of  the  smaller  canoes  in 
one  of  the  rapids  lost  control  of  the  craft;  she  left  it  and 
reached  the  shore,  wet  but  safe;  the  canoe  was  carried 
over  the  falls  and  was  dashed  to  pieces.  During  these 
days  the  hunters  killed  a  number  of  ducks  and  geese  and 
four  beavers,  the  fat  flesh  of  the  last  being  very  much 
esteemed  by  the  aboriginal  palate. 

On  June  9th  the  expedition  reached  Great  Slave  Lake, 
which  they  found  to  be  still  almost  entirely  covered  with 
ice.  Nets  were  set  in  the  lake  and  yielded  many  "  carp," 
whitefish,  pike,  lake  trout,  and  "  inconnu  "  ;  the  last  word 
means  "  unknown,"  and  was  applied  to  this  fish  by  early 
voyageurs,  who  were  unable  to  classify  it.  It  is  said  to 
be  found  only  in  the  Mackenzie  River  region,  and  even 
to-day  there  is  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  family  it 
is  a  member  of.  It  is  long  and  thin,  somewhat  like  a 
badly  formed  salmon,  and  reaches  large  size,  but  its  flesh 
is  flabby  and  forms  poor  eating,  so  that  it  is  not  used 
except  in  hard  times.  Many  wild  fowl,  including  several 
swans,  were  killed  along  the  lake,  and  some  dozens  of 
swan,  goose,  and  duck  eggs  were  found,  which  lent  a 
pleasing  variety  to  the  monotonous  diet. 

Warm  weather  and  a  succession  of  heavy  rains  melted 
the  ice  to  such  an  extent  that  on  June  15th  the  exepdition 
ventured  to  resume  the  voyage,  and  at  half-past  eleven 
in  the  evening  landed  on  a  small  island.  They  were  so 
far  north  that  even  at  that  late  hour  Mackenzie  could 
see  to  read  and  write  without  the  aid  of  artificial  light. 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  ARCTIC       6i 

Even  at  midnight  it  was  so  light  that  since  the  second  day 
after  leaving  Lake  Athabasca  they  had  not  seen  a  single 
star.  About  twelve  o'clock  the  moon  rose  above  the  tops 
of  the  trees,  the  lower  horn  being  in  a  state  of  eclipse, 
which  continued  for  about  six  minutes. 

The  explorers  were  much  delayed  by  ice  and  heavy 
winds,  but  luckily  caught  many  fish,  and  killed  wild  fowl 
and  a  number  of  caribou,  which  Mackenzie  calls  "  rein- 
deer." On  the  twenty-third  they  came  upon  some  lodges 
of  Indians,  whom  Mackenzie  calls  "  Red  Knives  "  (Yel- 
low Knives  of  to-day),  from  the  color  of  their  copper 
knives.  These  Indians  knew  of  white  men  and  had  many 
fine  marten  and  beaver  skins  for  sale.  Mackenzie  pre- 
vailed upon  one  of  them  to  accompany  him  as  a  guide, 
and  also  bought  a  large  canoe  for  the  use  of  the  guide 
and  the  two  young  Indians  who  were  already  in  his  serv- 
ice. Le  Roux's  trading  party  here  said  good-by  to  the 
explorers. 

Great  Slave  Lake  has  many  long  arms,  and  even  the 
Indian  guide  was  at  first  unable  to  find  the  outlet,  where- 
upon the  "  English  Chief  "  became  greatly  enraged  and 
threatened  to  kill  him.  At  last,  however,  he  found  the 
exit,  a  river  a  mile  wide,  and  down  this  the  flotilla  steered. 
The  explorers  were  now  fairly  launched  into  the  Un- 
known, for  no  white  man  had  ever  before  been  upon  this 
stream.    It  was,  of  course,  the  Mackenzie  River  of  to-day. 

In  a  day  or  two  they  passed  beyond  the  farthest  point 
where  their  guide  had  ever  been.  What  would  they  find 
ahead?  What  reception  would  be  given  them  by  the 
natives  farther  down?  All  was  uncertain.  That  there 
were  Indians  ahead  there  could  be  little  doubt.  One  day 
they  picked  up  a  white  goose  that  had  lately  been  shot 
by  an  arrow  and  was  still  quite  fresh.    The  old  wild  fowl 


62       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

were  now  moulting  and  were  unable  to  fly;  one  day  the 
Indians  ran  down  and  caught  five  swans  and  the  same 
number  of  geese.  Such  chases  were  very  fatiguing,  but 
they  saved  ammunition  and  helped  to  keep  the  pots  filled 
with  meat. 

For  days  the  explorers  drifted  down  the  great  river, 
killing  some  game  and  expecting  momentarily  to  reach 
rapids  or  falls,  but  never  doing  so.  At  one  place  they 
passed  a  range  of  mountains  to  westward,  high  enough  to 
bear,  at  that  season  of  the  vear.  small  patches  of  snow. 
In  many  places  along  the  shores  they  perceived  old  Indian 
encampments  but  it  was  not  until  the  qth  of  July  that  they 
actually  saw  any  Indians.  As  they  drew  near  the  camn 
the  natives  displayed  great  alarm,  some  running  about  in 
great  confusion,  others  fleeing  to  the  woods,  and  yet  oth- 
ers hurrying  to  their  canoes.  Mackenzie  and  his  Indian 
hunters  landed  and  shouted  messages  of  peace  in  the 
Chipewyan  tongue  to  those  who  remained,  but  such  wns 
the  confusion  and  terror  of  the  natives  that,  although 
they  understood  that  language,  some  time  elapsed  before 
they  seemed  to  comnrehend.  Finallv  their  fears  were 
allayed,  and  thev  hastened  to  call  their  fugitive  compan- 
ions from  their  hiding-places. 

The  encamnment  ronc;istpd  of  five  families  of  Slave 
and  Dogrib  Indians.  "  We  made  them  smoke,"  savs  Mac- 
kenzie, "though  it  was  evident  they  did  not  know  the 
use  of  tobacco;  we  likewise  supplied  them  with  grog:  but 
I  am  disposed  to  think  thnt  they  accepted  our  civilities 
rather  from  fear  than  inclination.  We  acouired  a  more 
effectual  influence  over  them  by  the  distribution  of  knives, 
beads,  awls,  rings,  gartering,  fire-steels,  flints,  and  hatch- 
ets; so  that  they  became  more  familiar  even  than  we 
expected,  for  we  could  not  keep  them  out  of  our  tents: 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  ARCTIC       63 

though  I  did  not  observe  that  they  attempted  to  purloin 
any  thing." 

These  natives  gave  a  discouraging  account  of  the  river 
ahead.  They  told  Mackenzie  that  it  would  require  sev- 
eral winters  for  him  to  reach  the  sea  and  that  his  party 
would  be  old  and  gray-haired  before  they  could  return. 
Furthermore,  they  would  meet  with  horrid  and  dangerous 
monsters  and  would  come  upon  two  impassable  falls. 
Mackenzie  himself  placed  no  faith  in  these  stories,  but 
they  had  a  marked  effect  upon  his  Indian  followers,  who 
were  already  tired  of  the  voyage  and  wished  to  turn  back. 

By  the  offer  of  a  small  kettle,  an  axe,  a  knife,  and  other 
small  articles — which  meant  fabulous  wealth  in  that  coun- 
try— Mackenzie  persuaded  one  of  the  natives  to  accom- 
panv  him.  Evidenflv  the  new  suide  considered  the  trip 
a  dangerous  one,  for  he  prepared  for  it  with  great  formal- 
itv.  Among  other  things,  he  cut  off  a  lock  of  his  hair, 
divided  it  into  three  parts,  and  fastened  one  of  each  to 
the  hair  of  his  wife  and  to  thnt  of  each  of  his  two  chil- 
dren. Having  done  so,  he  blew  upon  the  locks  three 
times  with  all  his  power,  meanwhile  chanting  certain 
words.  The  reason  for  this  ceremony  Mackenzie  was 
unable  to  ascertain. 

Mackenzie  thought  these  natives  to  be  lean,  ugly,  ill- 
made  people.  Most  were  unhealthy,  which  he  attributed 
to  their  filthv  habits.  They  were  of  moderate  stature, 
and  he  says  that  "  as  far  as  could  be  discovered,  through 
the  coat  of  dirt  and  grease  that  covers  them,"  they  ap- 
peared to  be  fairer  in  complexion  than  most  Indians  far- 
ther south.  Some  of  the  old  men  wore  beards,  while  oth- 
ers had  pulled  out  by  the  roots  the  hairs  on  their  faces. 
The  men  had  two  double  lines,  either  black  or  blue,  tat- 
tooed upon  each  cheek  from  the  ear  to  the  nose.    The 


64       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

gristle  of  the  nose  was  perforated  so  as  to  admit  a  goose 
quill  or  a  piece  or  wood  being  stuck  through  the  hole. 
Their  clothing  was  mostly  composed  of  dressed  moose  or 
caribou  skins,  decorated  in  some  cases  with  porcupine 
quills.  Some  also  wore  bracelets  and  necklaces  made  of 
horn,  bone,  or  leather.  Around  their  heads  they  wore 
bands  of  leather  garnished  with  porcupine  quills  and  stuck 
round  with  bears'  claws  or  other  ornaments,  and  having 
suspended  a  few  short  thongs  of  ermine  skin. 

Their  lodges  were  made  of  poles  and  bark.  They  had 
a  few  dishes  made  of  wood,  bark,  or  horn;  their  cooking 
vessels  were  made  of  spruce  roots  so  closely  woven  as  to 
hold  water.  When  they  wished  to  cook  their  food,  they 
put  it  and  water  into  these  vessels  and  then  made  the 
water  boil  by  cutting  a  succession  of  hot  stones  into  it. 
They  made  fish  nets  out  of  willow  bark,  and  for  hunting 
purposes  used  bows  and  arrows  and  spears  tipped  with 
bone.  Their  axes  were  of  stone.  They  made  much  use 
of  snares  in  catching  caribou,  moose,  and  smaller  game. 
Fire  they  kindled  by  striking  together  a  piece  of  pyrites 
and  a  flint  stone  over  a  piece  of  touchwood.  Though  they 
had  never  before  seen  white  men,  they  had  some  pieces  of 
iron,  which  they  had  obtained  from  the  Red  Knives  and 
Chipewyans. 

The  new  guide  soon  sickened  of  the  journey,  and  it 
became  necessary  to  watch  him  at  night  to  prevent  his 
deserting  and  even  to  force  him  to  embark.  On  the  first 
day  that  he  accompanied  the  party  they  passed  the  out- 
let of  Great  Bear  Lake.  Several  times  they  saw  other 
small  parties  of  Indians,  from  whom  they  obtained  fish, 
rabbits,  and  other  food.  At  one  of  these  camps  another 
Indian  agreed  to  go  as  a  guide,  so  the  other  was  per- 
mitted to  return.    The  volunteer  speedily  regretted  his 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  ARCTIC       65 

offer  and  wished  to  back  out  but  was  compelled  to  em- 
bark. However,  a  night  or  two  later  he  managed  to 
escape  during  a  rainstorm.  From  another  encampment 
another  guide  was  forced  to  take  the  place  of  the  fugitive. 

On  July  nth,  being  then  north  of  the  Arctic  Circle, 
Mackenzie  sat  up  all  night  to  observe  the  "  Midnight 
Sun."  At  half-past  twelve  he  awoke  one  of  the  men  to 
view  a  spectacle  he  had  never  before  witnessed.  On  see- 
ing the  sun  well  up  in  the  sky,  the  fellow  thought  that 
it  was  time  to  embark  and  began  to  call  the  rest  of  the 
party.  Mackenzie  could  hardly  convince  him  that  the 
sun  had  not  set  at  all. 

For  some  time  the  guides  and  the  other  Indians  of  the 
region  had  been  warning  the  explorers  that  they  would 
soon  meet  the  Eskimos,  whom  they  represented  to  be 
fierce  and  bloodthirsty.  From  time  to  come  they  passed 
old  encampments  of  these  people,  and  around  them  saw 
pieces  of  whalebone,  old  sledge  runners,  the  bones  of 
white  bears,  and  at  one  place  a  square  kettle  that  had 
been  hollowed  out  of  a  stone.  The  skulls  of  some  pe- 
culiar animals  also  aroused  their  curiosity;  Mackenzie 
supposed  them  to  be  heads  of  the  seahorse. 

The  ground  in  this  region  was  found  to  be  still  frozen 
only  a  few  inches  below  the  surface.  Trees  had  almost 
completely  disappeared,  and  those  seen  were  gnarly 
dwarfs,  hardly  more  than  bushes.  The  river  separated 
into  a  number  of  meandering  courses,  and  the  explorers 
could  only  guess  which  one  they  had  best  follow. 

On  July  1 2  th  the  canoes  entered  what  the  explorers 
thought  was  a  lake.  The  water  was  exceedingly  shallow, 
varying  in  depth  from  one  to  five  feet.  After  going  sev- 
eral miles,  however,  they  came  in  sight  of  a  great  ice 
barrier  which  appeared  to  bar  their  further  progress. 


66       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

That  night  the  water  rose  so  much  that  some  of  the 
voyageurs  had  to  get  up  and  move  the  baggage  higher  up 
the  shore  to  prevent  it  from  being  wetted  and  carried 
away.  The  explorers  at  first  attributed  this  rise  to  the 
action  of  a  strong  northwest  wind. 

Next  morning  one  of  the  men  perceived  what  at  first 
he  supposed  were  pieces  of  ice  in  the  water,  but  the 
manner  in  which  they  moved  led  him  to  think  they  must 
be  animals  of  some  sort.  Mackenzie  was  awakened  and 
at  once  pronounced  them  to  be  whales.  The  canoe  was 
hurriedly  got  ready,  and  the  party  embarked  in  pursuit. 
But  foggy  weather  brought  an  end  to  what  Mackenzie 
admits  was  ''  a  very  wild  and  unreflecting  enterprise." 
"  It  was,"  says  he,  "  a  very  fortunate  circumstance  that 
we  failed  in  our  attempt  to  overtake  them,  as  a  stroke 
from  the  tail  of  one  of  these  enormous  fish  would  have 
dashed  the  canoe  to  pieces." 

That  night  the  water  again  rose  under  their  baggage, 
and  it  finally  dawned  upon  the  explorers  that  the  rise 
was  caused  by  the  tide,  and  that  their  "  lake  "  was  the 
sea.  They  had_,  in  fact,  reached  the  Arctic  Ocean  and 
the  end  of  their  outward  journey. 

Mackenzie  strongly  wished  to  find  some  Eskimos,  but, 
though  many  comparatively  fresh  tracks  were  seen,  the 
natives  themselves  had  evidently  gone  elsewhere.  A  pole 
was  set  up  on  which  Mackenzie  engraved  the  latitude, 
his  own  name,  and  the  number  of  persons  in  his  party. 

On  the  1 6th  the  party  set  out  on  the  return.  It  had 
taken  them  six  weeks,  traveling  with  the  current,  to  reach 
the  Arctic.  The  homeward  journey  occupied  eight  weeks, 
for  they  had  to  fight  the  current  and  in  many  places  to 
"  track  "  the  canoes  with  towing  lines.  They  saw  more 
Indians  than  on  the  downward  trip,  and  had  some  amus- 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  ARCTIC  67 

ing  experiences  with  some  of  them.  One  evening  they 
pitched  their  lodges  near  an  Indian  camp,  and  the  hungry- 
Indian  dogs  persisted  in  getting  into  Mackenzie's  baggage 
in  search  of  food.  Mackenzie  remonstrated  with  the  na- 
tives, but  without  effect,  and  finally  shot  one  of  the 
offending  canines  dead  with  his  pistol.  When  the  Indians 
heard  the  report  and  saw  the  dog  dead,  they  were  seized 
with  terror.  The  squaws  at  once  grabbed  up  their  chil- 
dren and  fled  to  the  woods.  However,  Mackenzie  finally 
succeeded  in  convincing  the  Indians  that  he  would  do 
them  no  injury,  and  the  fugitives  returned  to  camp. 
With  tears  and  loud  lamentations  the  squaw  to  whom  the 
dog  belonged  declared  that  the  loss  of  five  children  the 
previous  winter  had  not  affected  her  so  much  as  the 
death  of  her  pet.  "  But  her  grief,"  says  Mackenzie,  "  was 
not  of  very  long  duration;  and  a  few  beads,  etc.,  soon 
assuaged  her  sorrow." 

In  the  afternoon  of  September  12th,  running  before 
a  favorable  wind,  the  explorers  finally  came  in  sight  once 
more  of  Fort  Chipewyan  and  soon  reached  that  place. 
They  had  been  absent  one  hundred  and  two  days. 

Thus  ended  one  of  the  most  notable  exploring  expedi- 
tions in  the  history  of  American  travel.  A  vast  new 
region  was  made  known  to  the  civilized  world,  and  it 
soon  became  a  field  for  fur  trading.  It  was  only  just  that 
the  mighty  stream  which  the  intrepid  explorer  had  traced 
at  the  expense  of  so  much  effort  and  danger  should 
thenceforth  be  known  as  Mackenzie  River. 


CHAPTER  VII 

HOW   MACKENZIE   REACHED   THE   PACIFIC 

Before  1793  no  white  man  had  ever  crossed  the  North 
American  continent  north  of  Mexico.  A  few  daring  men 
had  ventured  as  far  westward  as  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
and  a  few  mariners  like  Cook  and  Bering  had  sailed 
along  the  coast  of  what  is  now  Oregon,  British  Colum- 
bia, and  Alaska,  but  no  man  had  ever  made  the  long 
and  hazardous  journey  from  sea  to  sea.  This  was  a  feat 
which  the  intrepid  Mackenzie  next  undertook  to  per- 
form. 

In  the  spring  following  his  trip  to  the  Arctic,  Mac- 
kenzie made  the  long  journey  to  Lake  Superior  to  the 
headquarters  of  the  Northwest  Company,  only  to  find 
that  the  partners,  whose  sordid  souls  did  not  rise  above 
beaver  skins,  were  little  interested  in  his  discovery. 
Disappointed  at  their  indifference^  Mackenzie  returned  to 
Fort  Chipewyan,  but  did  not  give  up  a  new  idea  that  had 
entered  his  busy  brain.  From  stories  told  by  the  Indians 
and  from  his  knowledge  of  geography  he  had  become 
convinced  that  it  would  be  possible  to  reach  the  Pacific 
by  crossing  the  mountains  to  westward,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  attempt  the  feat.  Feeling  himself  deficient  in 
the  sciences  of  astronomy  and  navigation,  he  made  the 
long  journey  to  England  in  order  to  perfect  himself  in 
these  subjects  and  also  to  obtain  instruments  and  books. 
There  he  heard  much  of  the  voyages  of  Cook,  Vancouver, 
Meares,  and  others  and  of  the  rivalry  of  Russia,  Spain, 

68 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  PACIFIC       69 

and  England  for  the  northwest  coast,  and  these  things 
fired  his  ambition. 

His  plan  was  to  ascend  Peace  River,  the  mighty  stream 
whose  mouth  he  had  passed  on  the  journey  to  the  Arctic. 
On  October  10,  1792,  he  left  Fort  Chipewyan  with  two 
canoes,  and  two  days  later  reached  Peace  River.  As  he 
explains,  the  name  of  this  stream  does  not  arise  from  any 
special  quietness,  but  is  derived  from  the  fact  that  the 
Knisteneaux  and  Beaver  Indians  once  met  on  its  banks 
to  arrange  a  treaty  of  peace. 

For  hundreds  of  miles,  however,  the  lower  Peace  River 
is  navigable  except  at  one  place,  namely  the  Chutes,  a 
fall  about  twenty  feet  high,  round  which  Mackenzie's 
party  made  a  portage.  The  shores  along  this  part  of  the 
river  are  usually  low;  farther  up  they  rise  higher  and 
higher. 

On  October  20th  Mackenzie  reached  a  trading  post 
that  had  already  been  established  by  his  Company.  The 
weather  was  cold,  and  the  explorer  feared  that  the  freeze- 
up  was  at  hand,  but,  hurrying  onward,  he  reached  on 
November  ist  the  spot  where  he  had  arranged  to  pass 
the  winter.  This  spot  lay  a  few  miles  above  the  mouth 
of  what  is  known  as  Smoky  River  and  the  present  village 
of  Peace  River  Landing.  Two  men  had  been  sent  ahead 
to  this  place  the  preceding  spring,  and  with  timbers  these 
men  had  cut  the  party  erected  six  log  cabins  and  sur- 
rounded them  with  a  stockade  one  hundred  and  twenty 
feet  square. 

It  was  usual  in  those  days  to  build  such  stockades  as 
protection  against  the  Indians.  The  Indians  at  this  place 
were  a  branch  of  the  Chipewyans,  but  Beaver  Indians 
from  further  up  the  stream  often  visited  the  post.  Mac- 
kenzie engaged  some  of  them  to  hunt  for  him,  gave  them 


70       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

presents,  cured  one  of  their  warriors  whose  thumb  had 
been  blown  off  by  the  bursting  of  a  gun,  and  in  general 
managed  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  them.  Among  them- 
selves, however,  the  Indians  had  many  quarrels  and 
fights.  Thus  on  February  5th  an  Indian  named  White 
Partridge  was  stabbed  to  death  by  another  warrior,  the 
cause  being  jealousy  over  a  woman.  On  another  occasion 
two  braves  drew  their  knives  and  were  about  to  engage 
in  a  carving  match,  but  Mackenzie  intervened  and  drove 
them  out  of  the  house  into  the  snow,  where  they  stood 
"  for  at  least  half  an  hour,  looking  at  each  other  with  a 
most  vindictive  aspect,  and  in  sullen  silence." 

The  quarrel  in  this  instance  arose  out  of  a  gambling 
game  called  ''  the  platter,"  of  which  many  of  these  west- 
ern Indians  were  extremely  fond.  It  was  played  with  a 
platter  or  dish  of  wood  or  bark  and  with  six  round  or 
square  but  flat  pieces  of  metal,  wood,  or  stone,  whose 
sides  were  painted  different  colors. 

Mackenzie  notes  that  these  Indians  had  some  curious 
customs  connected  with  the  death  of  friends  or  relatives. 
Those  most  closely  related  to  the  departed  would  blacken 
their  faces  and  sometimes  cut  off  their  hair;  some  would 
pierce  their  arms  with  knives  or  arrows.  The  squaws 
would  not  only  cut  their  hair  and  weep  but  would  am- 
putate the  first  joint  of  one  of  their  fingers.  Mackenzie 
saw  old  squaws  who  had  repeated  this  ceremony  so  often 
that  they  had  not  a  complete  finger  remaining  on  either 
hand. 

It  was  also  customary  to  throw  away  or  destroy  every 
article  belonging  to  the  dead  person  except  what  was 
consigned  to  the  grave  with  him.  As  many  of  the  In- 
dians were  in  debt  to  the  traders,  this  custom  often  re- 
sulted in  considerable  losses  to  the  white  men.    Mac- 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  PACIFIC  71 

kenzie  sought  to  convince  the  Indians  that  the  debts  of 
the  dead  man  ought  first  to  be  paid  out  of  any  furs  he 
left  behind  him. 

Peace  River  became  clear  of  ice  on  the  25th  of  April, 
an  earlier  date  than  usual  with  that  stream.  Two  weeks 
later  Mackenzie  sent  off  six  canoe  loads  of  furs,  and,  the 
business  for  the  year  being  done,  he  was  ready  for  his 
voyage  of  exploration.  For  this  purpose  he  had  built  a 
new  birchbark  canoe  about  thirty  feet  long  and  four  feet 
nine  inches  wide,  yet  so  light  that  two  men  could  carry 
her  on  a  good  road  for  three  or  four  miles  without 
resting. 

On  May  gth  the  trip  began.  In  the  canoe,  besides 
Mackenzie  himself,  went  nine  persons,  including  a  Scotch- 
man named  Alexander  Mackay,  two  Indians,  and  two 
French  Canadians  who  had  accompanied  the  explorer  on 
the  trip  to  the  Arctic.  The  baggage  amounted  to  three 
thousand  pounds,  and  included  arms,  ammunition,  pem- 
mican,  and  goods  suitable  to  trade  with  or  give  to  the 
Indians  who  might  be  met  along  the  way. 

For  many  days  the  route  lay  along  streams  with  which 
I  am  myself  familiar.  For  two  hundred  and  forty  miles 
Peace  River,  though  often  so  swift  as  to  necessitate  poling 
or  tracking  in  ascending  it,  presents  no  serious  obstacles 
to  navigation.  The  stream  runs  in  a  deep  cleft  or  trough, 
and  on  both  sides  high  plateaus  rise  up.  Even  Macken- 
zie, who  was  usually  very  staid,  waxed  enthusiastic  over 
the  view. 

"  The  west  side  of  the  river,"  says  he,  "  displayed  a 
succession  of  the  most  beautiful  scenery  I  had  ever 
beheld.  The  ground  rises  at  intervals  to  a  considerable 
height,  and  stretching  inwards  to  a  considerable  distance: 
at  every  interval  or  pause  in  the  rise  there  is  a  very 


72       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

gently-ascending  space  or  lawn,  which  is  alternate  with 
abrupt  precipices  to  the  summit  of  the  whole,  or  at  least 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  distinguish.  This  magnificent 
theater  of  nature  has  all  the  decorations  which  the  trees 
and  animals  of  the  country  can  afford  it:  groves  of  pop- 
lars in  every  shape  vary  the  scene;  and  their  intervals 
are  enlivened  with  vast  herds  of  elks  and  buffaloes:  the 
former  choosing  the  steeps  and  uplands,  and  the  latter 
preferring  the  plains.  At  this  time  the  buffaloes  were 
attended  with  their  young  ones,  who  were  frisking  about 
them;  and  it  appeared  that  the  elks  would  soon  exhibit 
the  same  enlivening  circumstance.  The  whole  country 
displayed  an  exuberant  verdure;  the  trees  that  blossom 
were  advancing  fast  to  that  delightful  appearance,  and 
the  velvet  rind  of  their  branches,  reflecting  the  oblique 
rays  of  a  rising  or  setting  sun,  added  a  splendid  gaiety 
to  the  scene,  which  no  expressions  of  mine  are  qualified 
to  describe.  The  east  side  of  the  river  consists  of  a  range 
of  high  land  covered  with  the  white  spruce  and  the  soft 
birch,  while  the  banks  abound  with  the  alder  and  the 
willow." 

From  the  above  description  it  is  clear  that  even  in 
Mackenzie's  day  the  country  on  the  opposite  sides  of 
Peace  River  exhibited  much  the  same  differences  that  now 
impress  the  traveler.  From  the  Rocky  Mountains  for 
hundreds  of  miles  eastward  the  south  bank  (correspond- 
ing to  the  "east"  bank  of  Mackenzie;  for  the  moment 
he  was  traveling  nearly  south)  is  much  more  heavily 
wooded  than  the  north  bank,  which  is  very  parklike  with 
alternate  patches  of  trees  and  open  prairie.  Various 
theories  have  been  offered  to  explain  the  difference.  When 
I  was  descending  the  stream  in  191 6,  a  surveyor  who  was 
with  me  attributed  the  difference  to  the  fact  that  the 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  PACIFIC       73 

north  bank,  being  the  one  on  which  the  sun  shines,  is 
the  warmer  and  hence  the  bank  on  which  most  travelers 
pitch  their  camps;  from  this  circumstance  he  argued  that 
naturally  there  would  be  more  forest  fires  on  that  bank 
and  that  these  fires  made  the  country  on  the  north  bank 
more  open.  Probably  there  is  something  in  this  explana- 
tion, but  it  should  be  added  that  the  south  slopes  in 
that  country,  being  drier,  burn  over  more  readily  than 
the  north  slopes,  which,  being  shaded  from  the  sun,  re- 
main much  damper.  Many  times  in  British  Columbia 
and  Alberta  I  have  seen  mountains  on  which  the  forests 
on  the  south  slope  had  been  completely  burned  while  on 
the  north  side  the  trees  remained  vigorous  and  untouched. 
On  this  part  of  the  journey  the  party  easily  killed 
enough  elk  and  buffaloes  for  their  subsistence.  On  the 
bars  of  the  rivers  they  frequently  saw  the  tracks  of 
enormous  bears.  Some  of  these  tracks  were  ^'  nine  inches 
wide  and  of  a  proportionate  length."  On  an  island  they 
discovered  the  den  or  winter  quarters  of  one  of  the 
monsters — a  hole  ten  feet  deep,  five  feet  high,  and  six  feet 
wide.  The  Indians  called  this  bear  the  "  grizzly  "  and 
were  never  willing  to  attack  it  unless  in  a  party  of  at 
least  three  or  four  warriors. 

From  a  hunting  party  of  Indians  he  met  along  the 
way  Mackenzie  learned  that  at  the  first  range  of  the 
mountains  there  was  a  succession  of  rapids,  cascades,  and 
falls  which  the  Indians  never  attempted  to  ascend.  This 
obstacle  was,  in  fact,  the  Great  Canyon  of  Peace  River, 
where  the  stream  for  over  a  score  of  miles  plunges  be- 
tween rocky  walls  and  forms  one  of  the  wildest  stretches 
of  water  in  the  world.  No  man  has  ever  passed  through 
this  canyon  alive,  and  no  one  ever  will  do  so. 

The  Indians  were  accustomed   to  carry  around  the 


74       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

canyon  and  had  a  trail  for  that  purpose.  As  I  have  on 
two  different  occasions  made  the  walk  over  this  trail  in 
about  four  hours'  time,  I  can  testify  that  there  are  no 
tremendous  difficulties  to  be  surmounted.  But  Mac- 
kenzie made  the  mistake  of  not  leaving  the  river  when 
he  came  to  the  lower  end  of  the  trail  and  persisted  in 
following  the  river.  For  two  days  they  waged  a  des- 
perate battle  against  rapids,  and  frequently  were  at  the 
edge  of  disaster.  Once  a  heavy  swell  struck  the  canoe 
with  such  force  that  the  towing  line  was  broken,  and 
for  a  moment  it  appeared  impossible  that  she  could 
escape  being  dashed  to  pieces  and  those  on  board  her 
from  perishing.  But  another  swell  drove  her  out  of  the 
tumbling  white  water  so  that  the  crew  were  able  to  bring 
her  to  shore.  The  men  were  so  alarmed  by  this  adven- 
ture and  by  the  state  of  the  river  ahead,  which  as  far 
as  could  be  seen  was  one  white  sheet  of  foaming  water, 
that  they  began  to  mutter  that  there  was  no  alternative 
save  to  turn  back.  Mackenzie  realized  that  it  would  be 
imprudent  to  ask  them  to  go  farther  that  day,  so  he 
told  them  to  make  camp  while  he  and  one  of  the  In- 
dians went  ahead  to  reconnoiter.  But  as  far  as  he  went 
he  could  see  no  end  to  the  rapids  and  cascades.  The 
river  contracted  to  a  width  of  no  more  than  fifty  yards, 
while  the  high  rocky  cliffs  actually  overhung  the  stream. 
From  these  cliffs  huge  fragments  had  tumbled  down  and 
had  been  dashed  into  small  stones  with  sharp  points, 
which  formed  the  beach,  where  there  was  a  beach. 

Mackenzie  realized  that  it  would  be  hopeless  to  try 
to  ascend  farther  by  water,  so  the  next  day  he  sent  four 
white  men  and  two  Indians  to  pick  out  a  route  around 
the  obstacle.  At  sunset  they  returned  with  the  word  that 
they  had  reached  the  river  above  the  canyon.    Next 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  PACIFIC       75 

morning  the  explorers  began  the  portage.  The  banks  of 
the  river  were  so  steep  and  high  that  it  was  necessary  to 
fell  trees  so  that  they  formed  a  sort  of  railing  on  either 
side  of  the  ascent.  In  getting  the  canoe  up  a  rope  was 
used.  Men  were  sent  ahead  to  cut  a  trail  through  the 
woods,  and  the  next  day  Mackenzie  himself  aided  the 
trail  cutters.  Three  toilsome  days  were  consumed  in 
making  the  portage,  but  at  last^  the  laborious  task  was 
ended,  and  the  party  came  out  upon  the  river  bank  a 
little  distance  above  the  entrance  to  the  canyon. 

Two  hundred  yards  further  downstream  the  river 
"  rushed  with  an  astonishing  but  silent  velocity,  between 
perpendicular  rocks,  which  are  not  more  than  thirty- 
iive  yards  asunder;  when  the  water  is  high,  it  runs  over 
those  rocks  in  a  channel  three  times  that  breadth,  where 
it  is  bounded  by  far  more  elevated  precipices.  In  the 
former  are  deep  round  holes,  some  of  which  are  full  of 
water,  while  others  are  empty,  in  whose  bottoms  are  small 
round  stones,  as  smooth  as  marble.  Some  of  these 
natural  cylinders  would  contain  two  hundred  gallons." 
More  than  a  century  after  Mackenzie  passed,  I  myself 
stood  at  this  spot  and  saw  some  of  these  interesting 
"  pot  holes." 

Peace  River  is  the  only  stream  except  the  Liard  far- 
ther north  that  cuts  right  through  the  mighty  barrier  wall 
of  the  Rockies.  From  the  canyon  westward  the  moun- 
tains gradually  rise  higher  until  they  merge  in  the  main 
ranges.  The  river  flows  through  a  deep  cleft,  and  on 
either  side  tall  peaks  tower  right  up  from  the  water's 
ed(?e  to  the  region  of  perpetual  snow.  From  either  side 
raginc:  torrents  come  dashing  over  great  rocks  into  the 
main  river.  Altogether  the  region  is  one  of  the  grandest 
in  all  America.    One  would  expect  the  river  to  be  one 


76       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

constant  succession  of  cascades  and  falls  utterly  impos- 
sible of  navigation.  In  reality,  there  are  only  two  con- 
siderable rapids,  one  near  the  eastern  edge  of  the  main 
range  and  the  other  near  the  western  edge,  and  it  is  pos- 
sible, in  favorable  water,  to  track  a  canoe  up  or  down 
either  without  removing  the  craft  from  the  water.  The 
current  is,  however,  swift,  especially  during  high  water 
in  the  spring  and  early  summer,  and  Mackenzie's  party 
spent  a  week  of  laborious  effort  in  passing  through  the 
mountains,  whose  mighty  cliffs  they  viewed  with  awe. 

On  the  last  day  of  May  they  finally  emerged  from  the 
mountains  and  reached  a  point  where  the  river  forked. 
One  stream,  the  larger  one,  came  in  from  the  northwest, 
while  the  other  came  from  the  south.  Mackenzie's  in- 
clination would  have  been  to  follow  the  former,  but  the 
previous  winter  an  old  Indian  who  had  visited  the 
region  with  a  war  party  had  told  him  that  he  must  take 
the  southern  branch,  which,  he  said,  would  bring  him 
to  a  spot  where  a  short  portage  would  enable  him,  to 
embark  on  another  river.  This  last  stream,  Mackenzie 
hoped,  would  be  found  to  empty  into  the  Pacific.  Against 
the  wishes  of  his  men,  therefore,  Mackenzie  ordered  the 
prow  of  the  canoe  to  be  turned  up  the  southern  branch, 
or  what  is  now  known  as  Parsnip  River.  It  was  fortu- 
nate he  made  this  decision.  Had  he  elected  instead  to 
ascend  the  other,  which  is  now  known  as  Finlay  River, 
he  would  not  have  reached  his  goal.  I  have  twice 
ascended  this  river.  It  contains  many  obstacles  to  navi- 
gation and  heads  in  a  savage  wilderness  of  mountains 
hundreds  of  miles  from  the  Pacific. 

The  Parsnip  was  in  flood  from  the  melting  of  the  snow 
in  the  mountains,  and,  of  course,  the  task  of  ascending 
it,  never  easy,  was  doubly  difficult.     In  places  the  ex- 


Pliotograph    by   the   Author 

Entrance  to  Peace  River  Canj^on 


Peace  l\iver  in  the   lleart  of  the  Rockies 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  PACIFIC  77 

plorers  could  neither  walk  along  the  bank  wtih  their  tow- 
ing line  nor  find  bottom  for  their  poles  and  were  obliged 
to  pull  the  canoe  upstream  by  grasping  the  limbs  of  trees. 
On  the  morning  of  the  fifth  day  on  this  river  Mackenzie, 
Mackay,  and  the  two  Indian  hunters  left  the  canoe  to 
proceed  without  them  while  they  climbed  a  mountain  on 
the  east  bank  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  a  view  of  the  in- 
terior. The  canoe  was  to  proceed  with  all  possible  dili- 
gence, and  Mackenzie  and  his  party  were  to  follow  along 
the  shore.  After  reaching  the  summit  Mackenzie  found 
the  view  so  obstructed  by  thick  woods  that  he  could  see 
little  until  he  climbed  to  the  top  of  a  tall  tree.  Thence 
he  could  see  two  long  snowy  mountain  ridges  and  be- 
tween them  a  gap  through  which  the  river  issued. 
Descending  the  mountain,  the  party  hurried  onward  to 
get  in  touch  with  the  canoe.  After  a  long  walk  they 
struck  the  river  and  fired  two  shots  but  received  no 
answer.  Mackenzie  believed  that  the  canoe  must  be 
ahead,  the  Indians  thought  otherwise.  The  party  walked 
onward  and,  after  crossing  a  point  of  land,  came  again 
upon  the  river  bank.  Again  they  fired  shots,  again  there 
was  no  answer.  Here  Mackenzie  left  Mackay  and  one 
of  the  Indians  to  build  a  huge  fire  and  to  send  branches 
of  trees  afloat  as  signals  to  the  crew  if  they  were  below. 
With  the  other  Indian  Mackenzie  crossed  another  long 
point,  where  the  river  made  a  big  bend,  and  on  reaching 
the  river  once  more  fired  their  pieces.  The  echoes  died 
away  among  the  spruce-covered  hills,  but  there  was  no 
response.  The  only  living  things  in  sight  were  thick 
swarms  of  gnats  and  mosquitoes,  which,  warmed  by  the 
midday  sun,  fell  voraciously  upon  the  explorers. 

Mackenzie  rejoined  Mackay  in  a  state  of  great  anxiety. 
Having  once  myself  been  separated  from  my  canoe  and 


78        TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

companions  under  similar  circumstances  in  an  unex- 
plored region  hundreds  of  miles  from  any  human  habita- 
tions, I  readily  understand  his  emotions.  Perhaps  his 
followers,  weary  of  the  long  journey,  had  turned  back 
and  had  left  him  and  his  three  companions  alone  in  the 
wilderness.  The  two  Indians  were  certain  that  the  canoe 
had  sunk  with  all  on  board  and  began  to  plan  how  they 
could  build  a  raft  on  which  to  return.  To  add  still  fur- 
ther to  their  discomfort  they  were  totally  without  food, 
though,  as  Mackenzie  remarks,  they  had  an  abundance 
of  water.  The  explorer  bitterly  reproached  himself  for 
having  parted  from  the  canoe  in  such  a  place. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  Mackay  and  one  of  the  Indians 
set  off  down  the  river,  and  after  a  long  interval  the  sound 
of  distant  shots  conveyed  to  Mackenzie  the  joyful  news 
that  the  canoe  had  been  found.  Worn-out  and  drenched 
with  rain,  Mackenzie  made  his  way  downstream,  but 
he  confesses  that  these  inconveniences  affected  him  little 
"  when  I  saw  myself  surrounded  with  my  own  people." 
The  crew  explained  that  the  canoe  had  been  damaged, 
and  they  had  been  forced  to  repair  it.  Mackenzie  sus- 
pected that  they  had  been  loafing,  but  he  deemed  it  wise 
to  pretend  to  believe  their  story  and  "  even  to  comfort 
each  of  them  with  a  consolatory  dram." 

Had  Mackenzie  known  the  country,  he  would,  after 
ascending  the  Parsnip  about  ninety  miles,  have  turned  up 
a  tributary  now  called  Pack  River,  which  enters  the  main 
stream  from  the  west.  By  following  this  he  would  have 
reached  what  is  now  known  as  McLeod  Lake  and  could 
have  ascended  what  is  now  called  Crooked  River  to  its 
source  in  Summit  Lake,  whence  a  portage  of  eight  miles 
would  have  brought  him  to  the  Fraser  River.  But  his 
only  information  had  been  derived  from  the  old  Indian 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  PACIFIC  79 

who  had  told  him  vaguely  that  by  following  the  stream 
he  was  on  to  its  headwaters  he  would  be  able  to  make 
a  portage  across  to  another  river.  Therefore,  he  con- 
tinued to  follow  the  main  Parsnip,  hoping  each  day  to 
meet  with  savages  who  would  give  him  information.  Re- 
peatedly the  explorers  saw  old  encampments  and  other 
signs  which  proved  that  the  region  was  inhabited,  but  it 
was  not  until  the  ninth  day  on  the  Parsnip  that  they 
smelled  smoke  and  on  going  a  little  farther  saw  some 
natives  in  the  woods. 

The  party  was  a  small  one,  and  all  except  two  warriors 
at  once  fled  into  the  forest.  These  two  stood  on  a  little 
eminence,  brandishing  their  spears  and  bows,  and  yelling 
defiance.  After  a  long  parley,  however,  the  natives  were 
convinced  that  the  explorers  came  with  peaceful  inten- 
tions, and  they  recalled  their  fugitive  families  from  the 
woods.  Mackenzie  pleased  them  with  gifts  of  beads  and 
other  trifles  and  eagerly  inquired  of  the  great  river  to 
westward  of  which  he  had  heard.  Much  to  his  chagrin 
they  answered  that  the  only  large  river  in  that  direction 
was  one  which  was  a  branch  of  the  stream  they  were  now 
on — doubtless  Crooked  River  of  to-day.  But  as  the  in- 
terpreter was  able  to  communicate  with  them  only  im- 
perfectly Mackenzie  did  not  altogether  despair  and 
renewed  his  inquiries  the  next  day.  Again  the  explorer 
was  disappointed,  but  finally  one  of  the  natives  stated 
that  he  knew  of  a  great  river  to  southward  which  ran 
toward  the  midday  sun,  and  that  a  branch  of  it  ran  near 
the  headwaters  of  the  stream  they  were  on.  He  stated 
that  the  inhabitants  along  its  banks  built  houses,  lived 
on  islands,  and  were  numerous  and  warlike,  but  he  denied 
that  the  river  emptied  into  the  sea.  Mackenzie,  his 
spirits  soaring  at  the  welcome  information,  imputed  the 


8o       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

man's  opinion  that  the  river  did  not  run  into  the  sea  "  to 
his  ignorance  of  the  country." 

By  the  use  of  presents  Mackenzie  persuaded  one  of 
the  Indians  to  guide  him  to  the  portage,  which  they 
reached  in  two  days'  time.  The  stream  they  had  been 
following  ended  in  a  small  lake.  A  carry  of  about  eight 
hundred  paces  over  a  divide  brought  them  to  another 
small  lake,  the  outlet  of  which  flowed  in  the  direction 
they  wished  to  go,  but  it  was  too  much  obstructed  with 
fallen  trees  to  be  navigable.  Another  portage  of  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  paces  brought  them  to  a  third 
lake,  from  which  they  passed  into  a  small  river.  This 
stream  was  soon  increased  in  size  by  many  small  streams 
which  came  cascading  down  the  mountain-sides  from  the 
melting  snows  above.  But  fallen  trees,  jagged  rocks,  and 
rapids  rendered  navigation  highly  perilous.  To-day  this 
stream  is  called  Bad  River.  The  second  day  on  this  river 
began  with  a  serious  adventure. 

"  We  accordingly  pushed  off,"  says  Mackenzie,  "  and 
had  proceeded  but  a  short  way  when  the  canoe  struck, 
and  notwithstanding  all  our  exertions  the  violence  of  the 
current  was  so  great  as  to  drive  her  sideways  down  the 
river  and  break  her  on  the  first  bar,  when  I  instantly 
jumped  into  the  water,  and  the  men  followed  my  exam- 
ple; but  before  we  could  set  her  straight  or  stop  her  we 
came  to  deeper  water  so  that  we  were  obliged  to  reembark 
with  the  utmost  precipitation.  One  of  the  men  who  was 
not  sufficiently  active  was  left  to  get  on  shore  in  the  best 
manner  in  his  power.  We  had  hardly  regained  our  situa- 
tions when  we  drove  against  a  rock  which  shattered  the 
stern  of  the  canoe  in  such  a  manner  that  it  held  only  by 
the  gunwales  so  that  the  steersman  could  no  longer  keep 
his  place.    The  violence  of  this  stroke  drove  us  to  the 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  PACIFIC  8i 

opposite  side  of  the  river,  which  is  but  narrow,  when  the 
bow  met  with  the  same  fate  as  the  stern.  At  this  mo- 
ment the  foreman  seized  some  branches  of  a  small  tree 
in  the  hope  of  bringing  up  the  canoe,  but  such  was  their 
elasticity  that,  in  a  manner  not  easily  described,  he  was 
jerked  on  shore  in  an  instant  and  with  a  degree  of  vio- 
lence that  threatened  his  destruction.  But  we  had  no 
time  to  turn  from  our  own  situation  to  inquire  what  had 
befallen  him;  for,  in  a  few  momens,  we  came  across  a 
cascade  which  broke  several  large  holes  in  the  bottom 
of  the  canoe  and  started  all  the  bars  except  one  behind 
the  scooping  seat.  If  this  accident,  however,  had  not 
happened  the  vessel  must  have  been  irretrievably  overset. 
The  wreck  becoming  flat  on  the  water  we  all  jumped  out, 
while  the  steersman,  who  had  been  compelled  to  abandon 
his  place  and  had  not  recovered  from  his  fright,  called  out 
to  his  companions  to  save  themselves.  My  peremptory 
commands  superseded  the  effects  of  his  fear,  and  they 
all  held  fast  to  the  wreck;  to  which  fortunate  resolution 
we  owed  our  safety,  as  we  should  otherwise  have  been 
dashed  against  the  rocks  by  the  force  of  the  water  or 
driven  over  the  cascades.  In  this  condition  we  were 
forced  several  hundred  yards,  and  every  yard  on  the  verge 
of  destruction ;  but  at  length  we  most  fortunately  arrived 
in  a  small  eddy,  where  we  were  enabled  to  make  a  stand, 
from  the  weight  of  the  canoe  resting  on  the  stones  rather 
than  from  any  exertions  of  our  exhausted  strength.  For 
though  our  efforts  were  short,  they  were  pushed  to  the 
utmost,  as  life  or  death  depended  on  them." 

Benumbed  from  their  bath  in  the  icy  water,  the  party 
at  last  reached  the  bank,  and  were  there  joined  by  the  two 
men  who  had  been  forced  to  quit  the  craft.  The  canoe 
was  a  wreck,  and  all  the  bullets  had  been  lost,  but  the 


82       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

powder  had  received  no  damage,  and  the  shot  remained 
and  from  it  bullets  could  be  made.  No  one  had  been 
seriously  injured,  and  a  fire  and  a  dram  of  rum  raised 
the  spirits  of  all.  Some  of  the  men,  however,  wished  to 
turn  back,  and  it  required  all  of  Mackenzie's  authority 
and  eloquence  to  persuade  them  to  persevere  in  the 
hazardous  journey. 

The  canoe  was  repaired,  and  for  four  days  the  ex- 
plorers made  their  painful  way  onward.  Mosquitoes  and 
black  flies  besieged  them  in  clouds,  and  the  river  was  so 
bad  that  most  of  the  time  they  were  forced  to  carry  their 
canoe  and  baggage  through  a  tangle  of  woods  and 
swamps.  Their  guide  deserted  them  one  night  and  was 
not  seen  again,  but  finally  late  in  the  evening  of  the  1 7th 
of  June,  weary  and  worn,  the  explorers  emerged  from  the 
forest  upon  the  bank  of  a  large  river — the  north  fork 
of  what  is  now  called  the  Fraser  River. 

And  now  for  some  time  they  were  able  to  take  things 
easily.  Leisurely  drifting  and  paddling  with  the  current, 
they  reached  next  day  the  south,  or  main,  fork;  here  the 
combined  stream  was  about  half  a  mile  wide.  On  the 
second  day  on  this  river  they  portaged  around  what  is 
now  called  Giscome  Rapids,  some  miles  above  the 
present  town  of  Prince  George,  and  the  same  day  saw 
a  party  of  Indians,  who  fled  into  the  woods  on  seeing 
them.  Next  day  they  came  upon  a  larger  party,  the 
warriors  of  which  displayed  great  fury  and  let  fly  a  flight 
of  arrows,  most  of  which  fell  short  while  others  passed 
over  the  canoe.  Luckily  Mackenzie's  Indians  understood 
the  language,  and  after  long-range  negotiations  amicable 
relations  were  established.  These  Indians  said  that  the 
river  ran  toward  the  midday  sun,  that  white  men  were 
reported  to  be  building  houses  around  its  mouth,  but  that 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  PACIFIC       83 

there  were  three  places  where  the  stream  was  altogether 
impassable  because  of  falls  and  rapids. 

Accompanied  by  two  of  these  natives,  the  explorers  con- 
tinued their  journey  down  the  river.  From  Indians 
farther  down  Mackenzie  heard  such  a  discouraging  ac- 
count of  the  river  ahead  that  on  June  23d  he  decided  to 
return  upstream  to  a  point  where  the  Indians  told  him 
it  was  possible  to  make  a  portage  to  a  stream  that 
emptied  into  the  Great  Water. 

Now,  however,  difficulties  multiplied.  The  unexpected 
return  of  the  white  men  combined  with  other  circum- 
stances to  alarm  the  Indians  whose  camps  Mackenzie  had 
already  passed.  They  adopted  a  hostile  demeanor  and 
fled  to  the  woods.  Even  the  guide  who  had  promised  to 
show  them  the  way  across  the  portage  disappeared.  Mac- 
kenzie's followers  became  panic-stricken  and  were  eager 
to  start  for  home.  More  than  once  he  feared  they  would 
break  out  in  open  mutiny.  However,  he  managed  to  keep 
them  in  hand,  and  some  days  were  spent  in  building  a 
new  canoe  to  replace  the  old,  which  was  little  more  than 
a  wreck.  On  the  29th  of  June  Mackenzie's  heart  was 
rejoiced  by  the  return  of  the  guide,  who  explained  that 
he  had  been  employed  in  searching  for  his  family,  who 
had  been  seized  with  panic  and  had  fled  on  hearing  the 
false  reports  about  the  hostile  designs  of  the  white  men. 

The  explorers  now  built  a  cache  of  logs  in  which  they 
placed  many  of  their  belongings,  and  they  put  their  canoe 
upon  a  stage.  Some  pemmican,  wild  rice,  corn,  and  a 
small  keg  of  gunpowder  they  hid  in  the  ground,  rolled  up 
in  oilcloth  and  dressed  leather.  The  rest  of  their  belong- 
ings they  carried  with  them. 

For  two  weeks  they  traveled  westward  through  a  rough 
country,  forced  to  subsist  on  scanty  rations,  and  often 


84       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

drenched  by  rains.  From  time  to  time  they  met  small 
bands  of  Indians,  from  among  whom  they  engaged  new 
guides.  Finally  they  climbed  a  range  of  mountains  so 
high  that  the  pass  through  which  they  traveled  was  cov- 
ered with  snow.  Having  surmounted  this  barrier  they 
descended  into  a  valley  and  on  the  17th  of  July  reached 
a  navigable  river  flowing  westward. 

An  Indian  village  stood  upon  the  bank,  and,  as  it  was 
already  dark,  the  inhabitants  had  no  warning  of  the 
approach  of  the  white  men.  The  people  were  inside  their 
huts  cooking  fish  over  small  fires.  Without  ceremony 
Mackenzie  walked  into  one  of  the  huts,  threw  down  his 
burden,  shook  hands  with  some  of  the  people,  and  sat 
down  upon  his  pack.  The  inmates  showed  little  surprise 
but  soon  made  signs  for  him  to  go  to  a  large  house  that 
was  built  upon  posts  some  distance  above  the  ground. 
He  climbed  into  this  house  by  a  rude  sort  of  ladder  and 
after  passing  three  fires  in  the  middle  of  the  building  he 
came  upon  a  group  of  Indians  seated  on  a  very  wide 
board.  Among  these  people  he  noticed  one  of  his  guides. 
Soon  the  rest  of  INlackenzie's  party  entered,  and  all  were 
given  seats.  One  of  the  Indians  then  brought  a  quan- 
tity of  roasted  salmon  for  their  use.  Later  the  white  men 
were  invited  to  sleep  in  the  building,  but  Mackenzie  pre- 
ferred to  camp  outside.  A  large  fire  was  built,  and  the 
Indians  brought  boards,  so  that  their  guests  need  not 
sleep  on  the  bare  ground.  Two  large  dishes  of  cooked 
salmon  roes  were  then  brought  for  their  further  delecta- 
tion. Next  morning  they  were  treated  to  gooseberries, 
whortleberries,  raspberries,  dried  roes,  and  roasted 
salmon. 

The  Indians  at  this  village  were,  in  fact,  more  provi- 
dent than  was  customary  among  the  American  aborigines. 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  PACIFIC       85 

With  great  labor  they  had  built  a  weir  across  the  river, 
and  in  an  opening  in  the  center  they  placed  their  ma- 
chines for  catching  fish.  Salmon  were,  it  was  clear,  the 
staff  of  life  to  this  people,  as  they  were  to  almost  all 
Indians  living  along  streams  emptying  into  the  Pacific 
along  the  northwest  coast. 

For  several  days  the  explorers  descended  the  river, 
part  of  the  time  walking  along  its  banks,  part  of  the  time 
riding  in  canoes  obtained  from  Indians  met  with  along 
the  way.  Even  on  the  Eraser  Mackenzie  had  seen  a 
knife  and  other  articles  that  had  evidently  been  obtained 
from  white  men.  Such  articles  now  became  more  and 
more  common.  One  chieftain,  for  example,  showed  the 
explorer  a  blue  cloth  garment  decorated  with  brass  but- 
tons and  another  of  flowered  cotton  trimmed  with  a 
leather  fringe.  The  same  chief  stated  that  ten  winters 
before  he  had  seen  two  large  vessels  on  the  Big  Water,  and 
Mackenzie  supposed  that  they  were  probably  the  ships 
commanded  by  Captain  Cook.  The  gunwales  of  the 
big  dugout  canoe  in  which  the  chief  had  traveled  on  that 
occasion  were  inlaid  with  the  teeth  of  the  sea-otter. 

Finally  late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  i8th  of  July 
Mackenzie  came  at  last  in  sight  of  his  goal — an  arm 
of  the  sea.  He  was  still  a  long  distance  from  the  open 
ocean,  but  the  tide  rose  and  fell  fifteen  feet,  and  por- 
poises and  seals  were  almost  constantly  in  sight.  The 
spot  was  not  far  from  the  present  town  of  Bella  Coola, 
and  the  stream  they  had  descended  was  the  Bella  Coola 
River. 

For  three  days  the  explorers  paddled  about  in  a  maze 
of  inlets  and  channels.  Food  was  scarce,  and  the  Indians 
seen  were  inclined  to  be  disagreeable.  One  insolent 
fellow  constantly  harped  upon  the  fact  that  he  had  been 


86       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

shot  at  by  white  men  on  a  ship  and  had  been  struck  by 
one  of  them  with  the  flat  of  a  sword.  Mackenzie  kept 
his  men  constantly  on  guard,  and  to  these  precautions  the 
party  probably  owed  their  safety.  Having  taken  obser- 
vations for  longitude  and  latitude,  Mackenzie  mixed  some 
vermilion  in  melted  grease  and  on  the  face  of  a  great 
rock  wrote: 

"  ALEXANDER  MACKENZIE,  FROM  CANADA,  BY  LAND, 
THE   TWENTY-SECOND   OF   JULY,    1 793-" 

The  same  day  they  set  out  on  the  return  and  reached 
the  mouth  of  the  river  by  which  they  had  come.  They 
disembarked  and  made  their  way  by  land  toward  an 
Indian  village.  Mackenzie  and  the  Indian  guide  preceded 
the  others,  and  when  the  two  neared  the  village,  several 
armed  warriors  ran  toward  them  as  if  with  hostile  intent. 
Among  them  was  the  fellow  who  had  said  so  often  that 
he  had  been  shot  at  by  white  men.  Mackenzie  at  first 
raised  his  gun  and  brought  them  to  a  halt;  then  let  it 
fall  into  his  left  hand  and  drew  his  hanger.  The  Indians 
pressed  forward,  and  one  of  them  contrived  to  get  behind 
the  explorer  and  to  seize  him  in  his  arms.  Mackenzie 
soon  wrenched  himself  free,  but  was  never  able  to  under- 
stand why  the  warrior  did  not  avail  himself  of  the  chance 
to  plunge  his  dagger  into  the  white  man's  body.  Mac- 
kenzie's followers  now  began  to  appear,  whereupon  the 
Indians  fled  to  the  village,  taking  with  them  Mackenzie's 
hat  and  cloak.  Knowing  that  some  of  the  Indians  in  the 
village  had  stolen  some  of  his  belongings  a  few  days  be- 
fore, Mackenzie  determined  to  teach  the  savages  a  lesson. 
Marching  to  the  village,  he  demanded  the  return  of  all 
the  stolen  articles.  Awed  by  the  prospect  of  a  fight  with 
the  white  men,  the  Indians  complied. 


HOW  MACKENZIE  REACHED  THE  PACIFIC       87 

Many  days  of  toilsome  effort  brought  the  explorers 
back  to  their  canoe  and  cache,  where  they  found  all  safe. 
A  week  of  paddling,  poling,  and  tracking,  with  a  few 
portages,  and  they  arrived  at  Bad  River,  in  ascending 
which  they  were  forced  to  work  hard  on  scanty  rations. 
Finally  on  the  17th  of  July  they  once  more  embarked 
on  the  headwaters  of  Parsnip  River.  Thenceforth  they 
had  the  current  to  aid  them,  and  a  few  days  of  compara- 
tively easy  work  brought  them  to  the  Rocky  Mountain 
portage.  There  they  were  lucky  enough  to  kill  a  buffalo 
and  two  elk,  and  from  then  on  they  lived  on  the  fat  of 
the  land.  Finally  on  August  24  they  reached  the  post 
from  which  they  had  started  so  many  weeks  before. 

Thus  ended  an  expedition  fully  as  remarkable  as  that 
to  the  Arctic.  For  the  first  time  the  Continent  had  been 
crossed  by  white  men.  Vast  regions  had  been  opened 
up  to  the  knowledge  of  the  civilized  world.  Mackenzie's 
exploit  preceded  by  a  decade  that  of  Lewis  and  Clark. 
The  natural  obstacles  overcome  by  him  were  fully  as 
difficult,  and  his  means  much  less. 

Mackenzie  subsequently  acquired  a  fortune  in  the  fur 
trade.  In  1801  he  published  an  account  of  his  two  expe- 
ditions, and  for  his  services  he  was  knighted  by  the  king. 
He  ultimately  settled  down  upon  an  estate  in  his  native 
Scotland  and  died  in  1820. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  FUR  TRADING  ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY 

Of  all  the  fur  traders  who  wandered  over  the  Northwest, 
Alexander  Henry  the  Younger,  nephew  of  the  Alexander 
Henry  whose  adventures  have  already  been  mentioned, 
has  left  us  the  most  complete  record  of  the  daily  life  of 
those  who  followed  his  occupation.  For  a  period  of 
about  fifteen  years,  from  1799  to  1814,  he  kept  a 
voluminous  diary  of  his  experiences,  the  scenes  of  which 
ranged  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Pacific.  Over  eighty 
years  later  this  diary,  in  condensed  form,  was  edited  and 
given  to  the  world  by  Dr.  Elliott  Coues,  a  distinguished 
student  of  western  history. 

In  1709  Henry  engaged  in  a  trading  venture  in  what 
is  now  Manitoba  and  made  a  clear  profit  of  about  $3,500 
on  less  than  two  canoe  loads  of  goods.  The  next  year, 
as  an  agent  of  the  Northwest  Company,  he  set  out  from 
Grand  Portage  on  Lake  Superior  and  followed  the  Rainy 
River  and  Lake  of  the  Woods  route  westward.  Each  of 
his  brigade  of  canoes  contained  twenty-eight  packs,  and 
included  tobacco,  guns,  powder  and  lead,  and  ten  kegs 
of  high  wine,  that  is,  brandy.  The  food  for  the  canoe- 
men  consisted  of  six  bushels  of  corn  and  half  a  keg  of 
grease  for  every  four  men,  besides  what  fish  or  game 
could  be  caufzht  or  killed. 

There  were  many  rapids  and  portages  along  the  way. 
To  avoid  the  labor  of  making  what  was  known  as  the 
Portage  dTsle,  the  crew  of  one  canoe  tried  to  shoot  the 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY        8g 

rapids.  They  had  not  gone  far  when  the  bowman  made 
a  mistake,  with  the  result  that  the  bow  struck  a  rock  on 
shore,  and  the  current  whirled  the  canoe  around.  Both 
the  bowman  and  steersman  managed  to  leap  upon  the 
rock,  but  the  midman  was  not  active  enough  to  do  so 
and  remained  in  the  canoe,  which  was  instantly  carried 
out  into  the  wild  water.  For  a  moment  she  stood  on 
end  and  then  disappeared.  The  man  clung  to  a  bale  of 
goods  that  had  been  washed  overboard,  and  those  on 
shore  made  every  effort  to  aid  him,  but  in  vain.  A  heavy 
swell  swept  him  off  the  bale,  and  he  disappeared.  The 
canoe,  in  badly  damaged  condition,  and  some  of  the 
goods  were  recovered,  but  the  man  was  never  seen  again. 

On  August  1 6th  the  voyageurs  reached  Lake  Winni- 
peg, and  the  same  day  were  almost  wrecked  by  a  storm. 
Ducks  were  very  plentiful,  and  Henry  killed  a  number, 
also  a  white  pelican.  The  beach  was  covered  with  dead 
grasshoppers,  or  Rocky  Mountain  locusts;  they  formed 
a  continuous  line  along  the  edge  of  the  water  as  far  as 
the  eye  could  reach,  and  in  places  were  from  six  to  nine 
inches  deep. 

With  a  score  of  voyageur  helpers  and  their  Indian 
wives  and  children  and  a  considerable  number  of 
Ojibwas,  Henry  ascended  the  Red  River  of  the  North 
and  established  a  post  not  far  from  the  mouth  of  Park 
River  in  what  is  now  North  Dakota.  The  region  round 
about  was  parklike,  with  alternate  patches  of  wood  and 
open  prairie,  and  the  whole  country  swarmed  with  game. 
It  was  Henry's  plan  to  have  the  Indians  and  some  of  the 
voyageurs  hunt  and  trap  during  the  winter.  As  there 
was  great  danger  from  the  Sioux,  who  were  almost  con- 
stantly at  war  with  the  Ojibwas,  he  surrounded  his 
buildings  with  a  high  stockade  of  logs. 


90       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

On  the  way  thither  the  party  saw  many  buffaloes,  and 
Henry  was  astonished  at  their  number.  At  one  place, 
"  the  beach,  once  a  soft  black  mud  into  which  a  man 
would  sink  knee-deep,  is  now  made  hard  as  pavement 
by  the  numerous  herds  coming  to  drink.  The  willows 
are  entirely  trampled  and  torn  to  pieces;  even  the  bark 
of  the  smaller  trees  is  rubbed  off  in  many  places.  The 
grass  on  the  first  bank  of  the  river  is  entirely  worn 
away.  Numerous  paths,  some  of  which  are  a  foot  deep 
in  the  hard  turf,  come  from  the  plains  to  the  brink  of 
the  river,  and  the  vast  quantity  of  dung  gives  this  place 
the  appearance  of  a  cattle  yard." 

From  this  place  Henry  went  on  his  first  buffalo  hunt. 
With  a  voyageur  named  Desmarais  he  rode  about  a  mile 
from  the  river  and  discovered  an  animal  lying  in  the 
grass.  They  dismounted  and  crept  forward  to  within 
thirty  paces.  It  was  a  big  bull,  and  Henry  whispered  to 
Desmarais,  who  was  an  old  hunter,  to  fire  at  the  animal, 
but  the  voyageur  objected,  saying  that  a  buffalo  could 
rarely  be  killed  when  in  that  posture.  He  suggested  that 
Henry  start  the  bull  with  ?.  shot  and  said  that  he  would 
then  kill  the  animal.  Henry  was  carrying  what  was  for 
that  day  a  powerful  double-barreled  gun,  and  with  it  he 
aimed  as  best  he  could  for  the  heart.  When  he  fired,  the 
bull  stretched  out  his  neck,  legs,  and  tail,  and  instantly 
expired — to  Henry's  great  satisfaction  and  the  chagrin 
of  Desmarais. 

"  Having  plenty  of  meat  in  the  camp,"  says  Henry, 
"  we  took  only  the  tongue,  leaving  the  animal  for  the 
wolves  and  crows,  of  which  we  saw  many  hovering 
around.  Just  as  we  mounted  we  perceived  a  large  herd 
of  cows  to  the  southward,  moving  down  to  the  river  to 
drink.     We  rode  toward  them,  and  having  got  under  the 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY        91 

bank,  which  was  scarcely  high  enough  to  conceal  us, 
we  kept  on  through  the  woods  at  full  speed,  in  hopes  of 
intercepting  them.  But  in  this  we  failed;  we  found  they 
had  drunk  and  returned  to  the  meadows.  No  time  was 
to  be  lost;  we  rode  after  them  at  full  speed  through  the 
woods  which  line  the  river.  I  was  so  anxious  to  overtake 
them  that  I  did  not  take  proper  care  to  avoid  the  trees, 
and  suddenly  my  right  breast  struck  full  upon  the  point 
of  an  oak  limb  as  thick  as  my  wrist.  Fortunately  for  me 
it  broke  off.  I  had  not  time  to  examine  the  wound,  but 
cleared  the  woods  and  sighted  the  buffaloes,  not  more  than 
one  hundred  paces  off.  We  gave  our  horses  the  rein,  and 
were  soon  up  with  the  herd.  The  dust  they  raised  almost 
blinded  us,  having  the  wind  ahead.  My  horse  was  none 
of  the  best  hunters;  he  was  fleet,  but  timid  in  closing 
up  with  buffaloes.  I  could  only  get  a  long  shot,  which 
fortunately  knocked  over  a  bull.  I  looked  round  for 
my  companion  and  saw  him  still  near  the  river,  whipping 
his  stubborn  horse,  which  would  not  pursue  the  buffalo. 
I  now  examined  my  wound,  when  I  found  the  limb  had 
gone  through  my  jacket^  vest,  and  shirt,  and  penetrated 
the  flesh  half  an  inch,  just  below  the  right  nipple. 
Desmarais  having  joined  me,  we  took  the  tongue  of  the 
animal  only,  although  he  was  tolerably  fat,  left  him 
for  the  wolves  to  devour,  and  started  homeward.  On  our 
way  we  killed  two  more  bulls." 

Henry's  Journal  is  full  of  other  references  to  the  vast 
number  of  the  buffaloes.  In  one  place  he  tells  of  many 
miring  down  in  the  mud  and  dying.  In  another  he  relates 
how  whole  herds  of  the  animals  broke  through  the  ice 
of  Red  River  and  for  two  days  and  nights  their  dead 
bodies  "  formed  one  continuous  line  in  the  current." 
Thousands  grounded  along  the  bank,  and  the  stench  from 


92       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

their  bodies  was  so  strong  that  at  times  Henry  was 
unable  to  eat  his  meals.  The  Indians  told  him  that  every 
spring  it  was  "  about  the  same." 

Fresh  buffalo  meat,  fat,  dried  tongues,  and  pemmican 
formed  the  main  support  of  both  Indians  and  traders,  and 
great  numbers  of  the  animals  were  killed  for  that  pur- 
pose. But  the  instinct  for  killing  sometimes  led  both 
Whites  and  Reds  to  engage  in  useless  slaughter.  Once, 
for  example,  Henry  and  about  a  score  of  Indians  and 
voyageurs  amused  themselves  by  lying  in  wait  under  the 
river  bank  and  shooting  at  the  animals  when  they  came 
down  to  drink.  "  When  the  poor  brutes,"  he  writes, 
"  came  to  within  about  ten  yards  of  us,  on  a  sudden 
we  would  fire  a  volley  of  twenty-nine  guns  at  them,  killing 
and  wounding  many,  of  which  we  only  took  the  tongues. 
The  Indians  suggested  that  we  should  all  fire  together  at 
one  lone  bull  which  appeared,  to  have  the  satisfaction, 
as  they  said,  of  killing  him  stone  dead.  The  beast  ad- 
vanced until  he  was  within  six  or  eight  paces,  when  the 
yell  was  given  and  all  hands  let  fly;  but  instead  of  falling 
he  galloped  off,  and  it  was  only  after  several  more  dis- 
charges that  he  was  brought  to  the  ground.  The  Indians 
enjoyed  this  sport  highly — it  is  true  the  ammunition  cost 
them  nothing." 

Often  the  herds  passed  close  to  the  fort.  Once  a  cow 
actually  entered  it  and  was  shot  at  the  foot  of  Henry's 
gallery.  Another  time  a  herd  of  cows  were  crossing  the 
river  on  the  ice  nearby,  and  the  dogs  prevented  one  ani- 
mal from  getting  ashore.  Some  of  the  men  took  lines  and 
entangled  her  lejjs,  after  which  they  fastened  a  line  about 
her  horns  and  dragned  her  into  the  fort.  Suddcnlv,  how- 
ever, she  jumped  up  and  charged  at  the  dogs.  Two  of 
the  men  leaped  upon  her  back,  "  but  this  did  not  incom- 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY   93 

mode  her;  she  was  as  nimble  in  jumping  and  kicking 
at  the  dogs  as  before,  although  they  are  two  stout  men- 
Crow  weighing  at  least  one  hundred  and  ninety  pounds." 

Henry  relates  that  one  spring  day  he  killed  four 
buffalo  calves  and  brought  two  calves  home  alive.  They 
no  sooner  lost  sight  of  the  herd  than  they  followed  his 
horse  like  dogs,  right  into  the  fort.  On  chasing  a  herd 
at  that  season  of  the  year  the  calves  would  run  until 
exhausted  and  would  then  throw  themselves  down  in  the 
high  grass  and  lie  still,  hiding  their  heads  if  possible. 
When  the  hunter  came  upon  them,  they  would  start  tc 
run,  but,  seeing  only  the  man  and  his  horse,  would  stop 
and  allow  themselves  to  be  taken.  If  not  discovered, 
they  would  lie  still  until  their  mothers  returned  in  search 
of  them.  As  Henry  was  butchering  one  of  the  calves  he 
had  killed  that  day,  he  heard  something  running  toward 
him,  and  on  looking  up  saw  a  large  cow  running  directly 
at  him.  He  had  only  just  time  to  catch  up  his  gun  and 
fire  without  taking  proper  aim,  but  he  wounded  her 
sKghtly,  and  she  made  off.  More  than  once  Henry  had 
even  narrower  escapes,  and  his  Journal  is  full  of  exciting 
hunting  experiences. 

Elk,  black  bears,  coyotes,  and  timber  wolves  were 
common,  and  the  much  dreaded  grizzly  was  occasionally 
met  with.  The  dogs  belonging  to  the  post  occasionally 
mated  with  wolves,  though  more  often  they  fought  them. 
Henry's  Journal  for  1800  tells  of  the  killing  of  a  grizzly 
about  a  mile  from  the  fort,  and  this  reference  possesses 
much  zoological  interest,  for  the  grizzly  was  rarely  found 
so  far  east.  Sturgeon,  pike,  and  many  other  kinds  of 
fish  could  be  taken  from  the  river  in  great  numbers.  So 
it  was  not  often  that  the  traders  and  their  red  friends 
lacked  food.     At  posts  where  he  was  later  stationed 


94       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Henry  added  to  his  supplies  by  raising  vegetables,  espe- 
cially potatoes,  which  produced  heavy  yields. 

So  long  as  he  remained  in  the  Red  River  region  Henry 
and  those  about  him  lived  in  constant  dread  of  the 
warlike  Sioux.  There  were  repeated  false  alarms,  some 
of  them  of  a  ludicrous  character,  when  the  real  truth 
became  known.  Finally,  however,  the  Sioux  actually 
came. 

In  August,  1805,  while  stationed  at  a  post  where 
Pembina  River  joins  Red  River,  Henry  received  the  un- 
welcome news  that  the  enemy  had  surprised  a  camp  of 
his  Indians  on  Tongue  River,  a  stream  not  far  from  the 
fort,  and  had  killed  or  carried  off  fourteen  persons.  The 
first  person  killed  was  a  brave  named  Liard,  whose 
daughter  Henry  had  married — as  was  the  common  custom 
among  fur  traders  of  that  day.  Liard  had  climbed  a  tree 
to  look  for  buffalo  and  had  no  sooner  reached  the  top 
when  two  Sioux  fired  at  him.  Both  balls  passed  through 
his  body.  He  had  just  strength  enough  to  cry  out  to 
his  family,  who  were  in  a  lodge  about  a  hundred  ynrds 
away:  "  Save  yourselves!  the  Sioux  are  killing  us!  "  He 
then  fell  dead  to  the  ground,  his  body  breaking  several 
branches  of  the  tree  as  it  fell. 

The  noise  brought  the  other  Ojibwas  out  of  their 
lodges,  when,  recognizing  the  danger,  the  women  and 
children  instantly  ran  toward  a  large  woods  on  Tongue 
River,  about  a  mile  distant  and  in  the  direction  of  the 
fort.  The  four  surviving  Ojibwas  warriors  seized  their 
arms  and  made  off  also,  but  kept  in  the  rear  of  the 
women  and  children  to  protect  them.  It  was  not  long 
before  the  main  war  party  came  dashing  down  on  horse- 
back, whooping  and  yelling  diabolically.  The  four  war- 
riors, firing  carefully,  held  them  off  until  some  of  the 


p^ 


o 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY   95 

fugitives  had  entered  the  wood,  but  then  the  enemy  sur- 
rounded them.  Three  of  the  Ojibwas  warriors  fled,  but 
two  of  them  were  slain.  The  fourth,  a  brave  fellow 
named  Aceguemanche,  or  Little  Chief,  waited  deliber- 
ately until  the  Sioux  were  very  near,  when  he  fired  at 
their  chief  and  knocked  him  off  his  pony.  Three  young 
girls  and  a  boy  were  taken  prisoners;  several  other  fugi- 
tives were  slain  upon  the  spot,  including  Little  Chief. 

Several  squaws  and  children  took  refuge  in  the  woods, 
where  the  willows  and  other  brush  were  so  thick  that 
every  one  escaped.  A  boy  of  twelve,  closely  pursued, 
crawled  into  a  hollow  under  a  bunch  of  willows,  and  a 
Sioux  leaped  his  horse  over  it  without  perceiving  the 
scared  little  lad. 

One  of  the  little  girls  told  a  pitiful  story  of  the  fate 
that  befell  Liard's  squaw,  who  was  Henry's  mother-in- 
law.  She  had  two  young  children  who  could  not  run 
fast  enough,  so  she  took  one  upon  her  back  and  prevailed 
upon  her  sister-in-law  to  carry  the  other.  But  when  the 
Sioux  swooped  down  upon  them  with  hideous  yells,  the 
sister-in-law  threw  down  the  child  in  her  terror  and  soon 
caught  up  with  the  mother,  who  was  ahead.  Seeing  that 
the  child  was  missing  and  hearing  its  screams,  the  brave 
mother  kissed  her  little  daughter — the  one  who  related 
the  story — and  said  with  tears  streaming  from  her  eyes: 
"Take  courage,  my  daughter!  try  to  reach  the  woods — 
and  if  you  do,  go  to  your  eldest  sister,  who  will  be  kind 
to  you;  T  must  turn  back  and  save  your  younger  sister, 
or  die  in  the  attempt — take  courage — run  fast,  my  daugh- 
ter! "  The  poor  mother  actually  did  recover  the  child 
and  was  running  off  with  both  children,  when  she  was 
felled  to  the  ground  by  a  blow  on  the  head  with  a  war 
club.     She  sprang  up  instantly,  drew  her  knife,  and 


96       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

plunged  it  into  the  neck  of  her  assailant,  but  other  Sioux 
coming  up,  she  was  slain. 

Henry  was  absent  from  the  fort  when  the  news  of  the 
massacre  arrived,  but  some  of  his  employees  and  a  party 
of  Ojibwas  visited  the  scene  of  the  massacre.  All  the 
dead  had  been  mutilated  in  a  horrible  manner,  and  the 
skull  of  brave  Little  Chief  had  been  carried  off  for  use 
as  a  water  dish.  A  war  party  set  out  in  pursuit  of  the 
Sioux  but  quarreled  among  themselves,  and  the  massacre 
was  not  avenged. 

In  July  four  years  later  the  Sioux  even  ventured  an 
attack  upon  the  fort  itself.  At  the  time  there  were  over 
a  score  of' friendly  warriors,  about  fifty  squaws,  and  many 
children  camped  on  the  slope  between  the  fort  and  the 
river.  In  the  fort  Henry  had  eight  assistants.  The  In- 
dians had  been  having  a  grand  drinking  bout  and  were 
in  a  badly  demoralized  condition,  while,  to  prevent  them 
from  injuring  each  other,  Henry  had  collected  all  their 
guns  and  taken  them  into  the  fort. 

At  midnight  there  was  a  sudden  discharge  of  firearms 
from  out  in  the  darkness,  accompanied  by  the  blood- 
curdling warwhoop.  Several  bullets  pierced  the  lodges, 
but  no  one  was  hit.  Instantly  the  Ojibwas  sprang  to  their 
feet  and  rushed  for  the  fort,  in  order  to  obtain  their 
guns.  As  the  gates  were  locked,  the  warriors  climbed 
over  the  stockade  and  hurried  to  Henry's  house,  where 
they  snatched  up  their  guns  and  then  ran  to  the  gates, 
which  had  then  been  opened.  Through  them  poured  the 
frightened  squaws,  with  their  children  and  whatever  pos- 
sessions they  had  been  able  to  catch  up  in  the  dark- 
ness. Two  families  who  were  encamped  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  river  jumped  into  a  boat  and  also  made  their 
way  to  safety.     In  a  very  short  time  all  the  friendly 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY   97 

Indians  were  inside  the  fort.  Incredible  as  it  rnay  seem, 
not  one  of  the  Indians  had  been  hit;  the  only  loss  was 
that  of  an  unlucky  dog,  which  was  hit  in  the  head  by  two 
bullets,  as  he  was  in  the  act  of  jumping  into  the  boat  to 
cross  the  river. 

From  out  in  the  darkness  Henry  could  hear  the  Sioux 
haranguing  each  other.  He  pointed  a  coehorn,  a  kind  of 
small  cannon,  loaded  with  a  pound  of  powder  and  thirty 
balls,  in  the  direction  of  the  voices,  and  one  of  his  men 
applied  the  match.  Says  Henry:  "  The  balls  clattered 
among  the  large  trees  across  the  little  river,  and  the 
noise  of  the  discharge  must  have  appeared  awful  to  peo- 
ple who  had  never  heard  anything  of  the  kind  before. 
My  Indians  hoped  to  find  a  good  round  number  of  the 
enemy  dead,  as  they  said  they  heard  the  Sioux  lamenting 
their  fallen  relations.  Everything  was  quiet  for  some 
time,  till  we  again  heard  the  enemy  haranguing;  but  they 
had  withdrawn  to  a  greater  distance.  I  once  more  loaded 
my  coehorn:  and,  pointing  it  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the 
spot  where  we  heard  them,  fired  a  second  shot.  This 
caused  them  apparently  to  withdraw  still  further,  as  we 
heard  no  more  of  them  during  the  nisht." 

The  sound  of  the  thunder  gun  was  evidently  too  much 
for  the  Sioux,  for  next  morning  they  were  seen  riding 
off  down  Red  River.  The  whites  and  their  allies  found 
a  whip  on  the  handle  of  which  there  was  fresh  blood,  but 
they  found  no  dead,  and  it  is  probable  that  no  one  on 
either  side  was  killed  during  the  raid.  Several  parties 
of  friendly  Indians,  half-breeds,  and  whites  who  were 
not  in  the  fort  had  miraculous  escapes  from  meeting  the 
hostiles.  Henry  and  some  Indian  scouts  found  the  spot 
where  the  enemy  had  made  ready  for  the  attack.  It  was 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  fort,  and  from  it  the 


98       TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

enemy  could  in  the  daytime  watch  the  blockhouses  and 
stockades. 

"  Here,"  says  Henry,  "  we  found  upward  of  one  hun- 
dred pairs  of  old  shoes,  some  scalps,  remnants  of  leather 
and  buffalo-skins,  saddle-cloths  made  of  buffalo  robes, 
whips,  pieces  of  old  saddles,  rolls  of  bark  containing  war- 
caps,  bark  and  willow  dishes,  also,  paunches  and  bladders 
of  water  for  a  journey.  Upward  of  one  hundred  willows, 
about  six  feet  long,  with  a  fork  about  the  middle,  were 
stripped  of  their  bark,  and  stuck  in  the  ground.  This,  I 
am  told,  is  for  the  purpose  of  hanging  up  their  war-caps 
before  attacking  an  enemy.  We  also  observed  some 
places  where  they  had  seated  themselves  in  the  long  grass 
by  twos,  threes,  and  fours,  to  adjust  their  war-dresses. 
At  every  seat  we  found  a  quantity  of  swan's  down, 
colored  with  red  earth,  under  which  we  found  from  one 
to  four  small  stones,  about  the  size  of  an  egg,  also  daubed 
over  with  red  earth;  and  nearby  were  stuck  in  the  ground 
the  same  number  of  willows,  about  two  feet  long,  stripped 
of  their  bark,  and  daubed  with  the  same  red  earth.  Such 
a  place  is  called  by  the  Indians  '  the  spot  of  the  last 
sacrifice,'  as  it  is  here  that  they  adjust  themselves  for 
battle,  and  generally  make  a  sacrifice  of  different  articles 
they  have  brought  with  them  for  that  purpose,  to  insure 
the  protection  of  the  Supreme  Being,  or,  as  they  term 
him,  the  Master  of  Life." 

It  was  with  such  ceremonials  as  these  that  the  bar- 
barians of  the  northwestern  plains  made  ready  to  go 
out  and  murder  their  fellow-men! 

Henry  experienced  infinitely  more  trouble  with  the 
Indians  with  whom  he  traded  than  from  the  hostile 
Sioux.  Most  of  them  were  a  licentious,  begging,  untrust- 
worthy lot,  and  to  their  natural  weaknesses  had  been 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY       99 

added  an  overpowering  craving  for  the  white  man's  fire- 
water. Liquor  had  come  to  be  the  one  article  they  held 
in  most  esteem,  and  even  the  traders  who  deplored  the 
traffic  were  forced  to  supply  the  want  or  else  be  ruined. 
Kegs  of  rum,  whiskey,  high  wine  (that  is,  brandy),  and 
other  liquors  formed  part  of  the  cargo  of  every  brigade 
of  canoes  that  traveled  westward  from  Lake  Superior. 

The  liquor  was  sold  to  the  Indians  in  diluted  form. 
Those  living  nearest  civilization,  having  the  more  edu- 
cated tastes,  demanded  the  strongest  mixture;  those  in 
the  more  remote  regions  were  satisfied  with  a  much 
weaker  compound.  The  Ojibwas,  who  had  had  long 
experience  with  the  white  man's  firewater,  did  not  con- 
sider the  mixture  strong  enough  unless  eight  or  nine 
quarts  of  brandy  were  used  in  making  a  nine-gallon  keg 
of  drink.  For  the  Crees  and  Assiniboines,  who  were  less 
experienced,  six  quarts  to  the  keg  were  sufficient.  For  the 
Blackfeet,  to  whom  strong  drink  was  a  new  delight,  the 
traders  of  Henry's  day  were  accustomed  to  put  only  four 
or  five  quarts  in  the  keg.  Generally  speaking,  the  In- 
dians were  much  more  easily  overcome  by  intoxicants 
than  white  men;  only  a  small  quantity  of  alcohol  was 
required  to  make  one  of  them  drunk. 

Their  fondness  for  firewater  was  so  great  that  they 
would  barter  their  horses,  arms,  clothing,  or  even  their 
wives  and  children  to  obtain  it.  Henry  relates  that  on 
one  occasion  a  brave  offered  to  sell  him  his  nine-year-old 
daughter  for  a  small  quantity  of  the  drink. 

Henry's  Journal  is  full  of  decriptions  of  violent  scenes 
which  were  the  direct  result  of  the  use  of  liquor.  For 
example,  he  records  on  March  14,  1802,  that  "  In  a  drink^ 
ing  match  at  the  Hills  yesterday,  Gros  Bras  in  a  fit  of 
jealousy  stabbed  Aupusoi  to  death  with  a  hand-dague; 


loo     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

the  first  stroke  opened  his  left  side,  the  second  his  belly, 
and  the  third  his  breast;  he  never  stirred,  although  he  had 
a  knife  in  his  belt,  and  died  instantly.     Soon  after  this 
Aupusoi's  brother,  a  boy  about  ten  years  of  age,  took  the 
deceased's  gun,  loaded  it  with  two  balls,  and  approached 
Oros  Bras'  tent.    Putting  the  muzzle  of  the  gun  through 
the  door  the  boy  fired  the  two  balls  into  his  breast  and 
killed  him  dead,  fust  as  he  was  reproaching  his  wife  for 
her  affection  for  Aupusoi.  and  boasting  of  the  revenge  he 
had  taken.     The  little  fellow  ran  into  the  woods  and 
hid.    Little  Shell  found  the  old  woman,  Aupusoi's  mother, 
in  her  tent;  he  instantly  stabbed  her.    Ondainoiache  then 
came  in,  took  the  knife,  and  gave  her  a  second  stab. 
Little  Shell,  in  his  turn  taking  the  knife,  gave  a  third 
blow.    In  this  manner  did  these  two  rascals  continue  to 
murder  the  old  woman,  as  long  as  there  was  any  life  in 
her.    The  boy  escaped  into  Langlois'  house,  and  was  kept 
hid  until  they  were  all  sober.    Next  morning  a  hole  was 
dug  in  the  ground,  and  all  three  were  buried  together," 
Henry  mentions  dozens  of  other  drinking  affrays  that 
had  fatal  results.    Drink  had  the  effect  of  changing  many 
of  the  Indians  into  veritable  demons.    Henry  tells  of  one 
Indian  who  "  was  so  troublesome  that  we  had  to  tie  him 
with  rones  to  prevent  his  doing  mischef.    He  was  stabbed 
in  the  back  in  three  different  places  about  a  month  ago. 
His  wounds  were  still  open,  and  had  an  ugly  appearance; 
in  his  strusrelino:  to  fPt  loose  thev  burst  out  afresh  and 
bled  a  great  deal.    We  had  much  trouble  to  stop  the 
blood,  as  the  fellow  was  insensible  to  pain  or  danger;  his 
only  aim  was  to  bite  us.    We  had  some  narrow  escapes, 
until  we  secured  his  mouth,  and  then  he  fell  asleep." 

Occasionally  these  drinking  affrays  had  an   amusing 
side.     Thus  at  the  Red  River  post  there  was  an  old 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      loi 

Indian  who  was  called  by  the  whites  Crooked  Legs.  He 
had  two  wives,  one  an  aged  hag,  the  other  a  buxom  young 
squaw,  who  despised  him.  One  day  when  all  were  drunk 
Crooked  Legs  began  to  accuse  the  young  squaw  of  in- 
fidelity, whereupon  she  caught  up  a  long  stick  and  hit 
him  a  blow  over  the  head  that  laid  him  senseless.  She 
then  ran  off  and  hid  in  another  lodge.  On  recovering  his 
senses  the  old  man  took  his  knife,  found  her,  and  began 
to  stab  her.  He  would  have  made  an  end  of  her  then 
and  there  had  not  some  of  the  other  squaws  disarmed 
him.  As  it  was^  he  gave  her  three  bad  wounds,  from  one 
of  which  the  blood  gushed  out  from  her  lung.  On  exam- 
ining the  wounds  Henry  thought  the  woman  would  surely 
die.  As  for  Crooked  Legs,  he  took  refuge  in  his  own  tent, 
singing  and  saying  he  was  not  afraid  to  die.  Some  of 
the  Indians,  even  his  own  son,  wished  to  kill  him,  and 
Henry  had  much  difficulty  in  preventing  them  from 
doing  so. 

Next  day  the  wounded  squaw  was  able  to  walk  about, 
while  her  husband,  now  sober,  was  very  sorry  for  her. 
As  he  was  skilled  in  the  treatment  of  wounds,  he  set 
about  curing  her.  She,  however,  cast  "  cruel  frowns  upon 
the  old  gentleman,"  and  when  he  would  be  dressing  her 
wounds  would  say  in  reply  to  tender  remarks  on  his 
part:  "  Get  out,  you  old  dog!  If  I  live,  it  will  be  the 
worse  for  you." 

In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  she  completely  recovered 
and  took  advantage  of  another  drinking  match  to  be  re- 
venged. She  gave  her  husband  a  terrific  beating  with  a 
stick,  and  then,  throwing  him  upon  his  back,  proceeded 
to  burn  him  with  a  firebrand.  Other  Indians  interfered 
presently  and  took  her  away,  but  not  before  she  had 
reduced  him  to  a  shocking  condition.    Henry  records  in 


102     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

his  Journal  for  the  next  day:  "Crooked  Legs  too  ill  to 
stir;  his  old  wife  waits  on  him,  and  the  young  one  makes 
fun  of  him."  A  few  days  later  Crooked  Legs  and  his 
old  wife  left  the  post.  "  The  old  gent  was,"  says  Henry, 
"  in  a  sad  condition,  and  appeared  to  be  failing  fast.  I 
had  him  dragged  away  on  a  travaille  with  my  horse." 

Before  beginning  a  drinking  bout  the  Indians  would 
sometimes  put  away  all  their  arms,  well  aware  that  they 
might  make  murderous  use  of  them  otherwise.  At  times 
the  traders  w^ould  themselves  attend  to  the  disarming. 
But  in  their  orgies  the  maddened  creatures  would  impro- 
vise weapons,  or  would  employ  the  weapons  with  which 
nature  had  endowed  them.  Henry  makes  frequent  men- 
tion of  Indians  who  had  their  noses  or  ears  bitten  off  in 
these  drinking  bouts. 

Another  writer  says  of  such  scenes:  "To  see  a  house 
full  of  drunken  Indians,  consisting  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  is  a  most  unpleasant  sight;  for,  in  that  condi- 
tion, they  often  wrangle,  pull  each  other  by  the  hair,  and 
fight.  At  some  times,  ten  or  twelve,  of  both  sexes,  may 
be  seen,  fighting  each  other  promiscuously,  until  at  last 
they  all  fall  on  the  floor,  one  upon  another,  some  spilling 
rum  out  of  a  small  kettle  or  dish,  which  thev  hold  in  their 
hands,  while  others  are  throwing  up  what  they  have  Just 
drunk.  To  add  to  this  uproar,  a  number  of  children, 
some  on  their  mothers'  shoulders,  and  others  running 
about  and  taking  hold  of  their  clothes,  are  constantly 
bawling,  the  elder  ones,  through  fear  that  their  parents 
may  be  stabbed,  or  that  some  other  misfortune  may  befall 
them  in  the  fray.  These  shrieks  of  the  children  form  a 
very  unpleasant  chorus  to  the  brutal  noise  kept  up  by 
the  parents,  who  are  engaged  in  the  squabble." 

The  drunken  Indians  were  usually  so  troublesome  that 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      103 

the  traders  were  at  their  wits'  end  to  manage  them,  and 
many  deadly  affrays  were  the  direct  result  of  drink. 
Some  traders  made  use  of  laudanum  to  put  the  quarrel- 
some to  sleep.  In  at  least  one  instance  the  dose  was 
made  too  large,  and  death  resulted.  Sir  Alexander  Mac- 
kenzie says  of  this  case:  "  Most  of  them  who  passed  the 
winter  on  the  Saskathiwine,  got  to  the  Eagle  Hills,  where, 
in  the  spring  of  1780,  a  few  days  previous  to  their  in- 
tended departure,  a  large  band  of  Indians  being  engaged 
in  drinking  about  their  houses,  one  of  the  traders,  to  ease 
himself  of  the  troublesome  importunities  of  a  native,  gave 
him  a  dose  of  laudanum  in  a  glass  of  grog,  which  effec- 
tually prevented  him  from  giving  further  trouble  to  any 
one,  by  setting  him  asleep  forever.  This  accident  pro- 
duced a  fray,  in  which  one  of  the  traders,  and  several  of 
the  men,  were  killed,  while  the  rest  had  no  other  means 
to  save  themselves  but  by  a  precipitate  flight." 

Henry  was  not  a  man  of  much  humanity  of  feeling. 
His  main  concern  was  to  get  furs  at  the  cheapest  price. 
His  opinion  of  the  Indians  was  a  very  low  one.  But  oc- 
casionally a  gleam  of  higher  feelings  appears  in  his  pages, 
and  he  laments  the  use  made  of  liquor  in  the  Indian 
trade.  For  example,  his  entry  for  one  day  was  as 
follows : 

"  In  the  evening  we  were  surprised  by  hearing  three 
reports  of  a  gun.  Old  Fallewine  soon  arrived,  and 
bawled  out  at  a  distance,  as  soon  as  he  thought  we  could 
hear  him,  that  five  Indians  had  been  murdered  near 
Portage  la  Prairie  since  I  passed  there,  relations  of  him- 
self and  some  others  who  camped  here.  This  firing  was 
the  usual  signal  of  death  in  carrying  news  from  one  camp 
to  another.  But  the  Indians  totally  neglect  their  ancient 
customs;  and  to  what  can  this  degeneracy  be  ascribed  but 


I04     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

to  their  intercourse  with  us,  particularly  as  they  are  so 
unfortunate  as  to  have  a  continual  succession  of  opposi- 
tion parties  to  teach  them  roguery  and  destroy  both  body 
and  mind  with  that  pernicious  article,  rum?  What  a 
different  set  of  people  they  would  be,  were  there  not  a 
drop  of  liquor  in  the  country!  If  a  murder  is  committed 
among  the  Saulteurs  [Ojibwas],  it  is  always  in  a  drink- 
ing match.  We  may  truly  say  that  liquor  is  the  root  of  all 
evil  in  the  Northwest.  Great  bawling  and  lamentation 
went  on,  and  I  was  troubled  most  of  the  night  for  liquor 
to  wash  away  grief." 

Among  the  Ojibwas  who  visited  Henry's  post  on  Red 
River  was  a  young  Indian  named  Berdash.  He  was  con- 
sidered effeminate  in  his  ways,  but  was  the  swiftest  runner 
of  his  tribe,  and  some  years  before  had  had  a  remarkable 
adventure  that  tested  both  his  speed  and  courage.  A  fur 
trader  named  Reaume  attempted  to  make  peace  between 
the  Ojibwas  and  Sioux,  and  Berdash  accompanied  a  party 
of  his  tribesmen  to  the  Sioux  camp.  They  at  first  ap- 
peared reconciled  to  each  other  through  the  intercession 
of  the  whites,  but  as  the  Saulteurs,  who  were  mostly  un- 
armed, were  returning  home,  the  Sioux  pursued  them. 
"  Both  parties  were  on  foot,  and  the  Sioux  have  the  name 
of  being  extraordinarily  swift.  The  Saulteurs  impru- 
dently dispersed  in  the  plains,  and  several  were  killed; 
but  the  party  with  Berdash  escaped  without  any  acci- 
dent, in  the  following  manner:  One  of  them  had  got  from 
the  Sioux  a  bow  but  only  a  few  arrows.  On  starting  and 
finding  themselves  pursued,  they  ran  a  considerable  dis- 
tance, until  they  perceived  the  Sioux  were  gaining  fast 
UDon  them,  when  Berdash  took  the  bow  and  arrows  from 
his  comrades,  and  told  them  to  run  as  fast  as  possible, 
without  minding  him,  as  he  feared  no  danger.     He  then 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      105 

faced  the  enemy  and  began  to  let  fly  his  arrows.  This 
checked  their  course,  and  they  returned  the  compliment 
with  interest,  but  it  was  so  far  off  that  only  a  chance 
arrow  could  have  hurt  him,  as  they  had  nearly  spent  their 
strength  when  they  fell  near  him.  His  own  arrows  were 
soon  expended,  but  he  lost  no  time  in  gathering  up  those 
that  fell  near  him,  and  thus  he  had  a  continual  supply. 
Seeing  his  friends  some  distance  ahead,  and  the  Sioux 
moving  to  surround  him,  he  turned  and  ran  full  speed 
to  join  his  comrades,  the  Sioux  after  him.  When  the 
latter  approached  too  near,  Berdash  again  stopped  and 
faced  them  with  his  bow  and  arrows,  and  kept  them  at 
bay.  Thus  did  he  continue  to  manoeuver  until  they 
reached  a  spot  of  strong  wood  which  the  Sioux  dared  not 
enter." 

Living  for  so  many  years  as  Henry  did  in  a  fur  coun- 
try it  was  inevitable  that  many  curious  trapping  experi- 
ences should  come  to  his  attention.  For  example,  he 
relates  that  one  day  a  trapper  named  Laroque  came  to  the 
Red  River  post  bringing  a  skunk,  a  badger,  and  a  large 
w^hite  wolf,  "  all  three  caught  in  the  same  trap  at  once, 
as  he  said.  This  we  thought  extraordinary — indeed,  a 
falsehood — until  he  explained  the  affair.  His  trap  was 
made  in  a  hollow  stump,  in  the  center  of  which  there  was 
a  deep  hole  in  the  ground.  He  found  the  wolf  just 
caught,  and  still  alive;  he  dispatched  him,  and  on  taking 
him  out,  noticed  something  stirring  and  making  a  noise 
in  the  hole  in  the  ground.  Upon  looking  in  he  perceived 
the  badger,  which  he  killed  with  a  stick,  and  on  pulling 
him  out,  smelled  the  horrid  stench  of  the  skunk,  which 
was  in  one  corner  of  the  hole;  he  soon  dispatched  him 
also.  From  this  the  Indians  all  predicted  some  great 
misfortune,  either  to  the  person  to  whom  the  traps  be- 


io6      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

longed,  or  to  our  fort.  Some  supposed  the  Sioux  would 
destroy  us  all." 

Henry's  explanation  of  the  incident  was  that  the 
badger  had  chased  the  skunk  into  the  hole  and  had  in 
turn  been  pursued  by  the  wolf.  This  explanation  may 
or  may  not  be  the  correct  one. 

"  Some  went  racoon  hunting,  the  weather  being  warm," 
says  Henry  under  date  of  November  30,  1800.  "They 
returned  in  the  evening  with  seven,  which  they  had  found 
in  one  hollow  tree.  The  size  of  this  tree  was  enormous, 
having  a  hollow  six  feet  in  diameter,  the  rim  or  shell 
being  two  feet  thick,  including  the  bark.  Racoon  hunting 
is  common  here  in  the  winter  season.  The  hunter  exam- 
ines every  hollow  tree  met  with,  and  when  he  sees  the 
fresh  marks  of  the  claws,  he  makes  a  hole  with  an  ax, 
and  thus  opens  the  hollow  space,  in  which  he  lights  a  fire 
to  find  out  if  there  be  any  racoons  within,  as  they  often 
climb  trees  in  the  autumn,  and,  not  finding  them  proper 
for  the  purpose,  leave  them  and  seek  others.  But  if  they 
be  within,  the  smoke  obliges  them  to  ascend  and  put 
their  heads  out  of  the  hole  they  entered.  On  observing 
this,  the  ax  is  applied  to  the  tree;  with  the  assistance 
of  the  fire,  it  is  soon  down,  and  the  hunter  stands  ready 
to  dispatch  the  animals  whilst  they  are  stunned  by  the 
fall.  But  sometimes  they  are  so  obstinate  as  to  remain 
at  the  bottom  of  the  hole,  until  they  are  suffocated  or 
roasted  to  death. 

"  The  bears,  both  grizzly  and  common  black,  which 
reside  on  Red  River,  take  to  hollow  trees  also,  and  are 
hunted  by  the  Indians  in  the  same  manner  as  racoons. 
But  the  bears  in  the  Hair  Hills,  and  other  elevated  places, 
never  take  to  the  trees  for  their  winter  quarters.  They 
reside  in  holes  in  the  ground,   in    the  most  intricate 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      107 

thicket  they  can  find,  generally  under  the  roots  of  trees 
that  have  been  torn  up  by  the  wind,  or  have  otherwise 
fallen.  These  are  more  difficult  to  find,  requiring  good 
dogs  that  are  naturally  given  to  hunt  bears.  The  reason 
why  the  bears  differ  so  in  the  choice  of  their  winter 
habitations  is  obvious.  The  low  points  along  the  river, 
where  the  woods  principally  grow,  are  every  spring  sub- 
ject to  overflow  when  the  ice  breaks  up.  The  mud  car- 
ried down  with  the  current,  and  left  on  the  banks,  makes 
their  dens  uncomfortable.  On  the  Hair  Hills  and  other 
high  lands,  where  the  ground  is  free  from  inundation, 
the  soft  and  sandy  soil  is  not  so  cold  as  the  stiff,  black 
mud  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  which  appears  to  be 
made  ground.  Frequently,  on  digging  holes  in  winter,  we 
found  the  frost  had  penetrated  the  ground  nearly  four 
feet,  like  one  solid  body  of  ice,  while  in  a  high,  dry,  sandy 
soil,  it  seldom  exceeds  one  foot  in  depth." 

Henry  had  a  very  low  opinion  of  the  Indians  in  most 
matters  but  greatly  admired  their  skill  as  hunters  and 
trailers.  He  relates  that  in  the  autumn  of  1799  he  went 
hunting  near  the  foot  of  Fort  Dauphin  Mountain  with  an 
Ojibwas.  Soon  they  came  upon  the  tracks  of  some  elk, 
or,  as  Henry  calls  them,  "  red  deer."  They  quickly  dis- 
covered the  band  in  a  thicket  of  willows  and  poplars. 
Both  fired,  but  the  elk  scattered  and  disappeared.  The 
hunters  pursued  them,  but  without  avail,  as  the  country 
was  unfavorable. 

"  We  then  returned,"  says  Henry,  "  to  the  spot  where 
we  had  fired,  as  the  Indians  suspected  that  we  had 
wounded  some  of  them.  We  searched  to  see  if  we  could 
find  any  blood;  on  my  part,  I  could  find  tracks,  but  no 
blood,  nor  any  sign  that  an  animal  had  been  wounded. 
As  the  ground  was  beaten  in  every  direction  by  animals, 


io8      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

it  was  only  after  a  tedious  search  that  he  found  where  the 
buck  had  struck  off.  But  no  blood  was  seen  until,  pass- 
ing through  a  thicket  of  willows,  he  observed  a  drop  upon 
a  leaf,  and  next  a  little  more.  He  then  began  to  examine 
more  strictly,  to  find  out  in  what  part  of  the  body  the 
animal  had  been  wounded;  and  judging  by  the  height  and 
other  signs,  he  told  me  the  wound  must  have  been  some- 
where between  the  shoulder  and  neck.  We  advanced 
about  a  mile,  but  saw  nothing  of  the  deer,  and  no  more 
blood.  I  was  for  giving  up  the  chase;  but  he  assured 
me  the  wound  was  mortal,  and  that  if  the  animal  should 
lie  down  he  could  not  rise  again.  We  proceeded  two 
miles  further,  when,  coming  out  upon  a  small  open  space, 
he  told  me  the  animal  was  at  no  great  distance,  and  very 
probably  in  this  meadow.  We  accordingly  advanced  a 
few  yards,  and  there  we  found  the  deer  lying  at  the  last 
gasp.  The  wound  was  exactly  as  I  had  been  told.  The 
sagacity  of  the  Saulteurs  in  tracing  strong  wood  animals 
is  astonishing.  I  have  frequently  witnessed  occurrences 
of  this  nature;  the  bend  of  a  leaf  or  blade  of  grass  is 
enough  to  show  the  direction  the  game  has  taken.  Their 
ability  is  of  equally  great  service  to  war-parties,  when 
they  discover  the  footsteps  of  their  enemies." 

Henry  had  many  serious  disputes  with  individual  In- 
dians. Once  a  brave  tried  to  stab  the  trader  with  Henry's 
own  knife,  whereupon  Henry  "  gave  him  a  cruel  beating 
and  bunged  up  both  his  eyes,  so  that  he  could  not  see  for 
several  days."  The  Indian  vowed  revenge,  and  Henry 
had  to  be  constantly  on  his  guard.  Another  time  Henry 
"  refused  to  give  debt  to  Grande  Gueule  [Big  Mouth] 
for  a  blanket,  as  I  knew  he  already  owed  me  more  than 
he  could  pay;  he  is  a  notorious  scoundrel.  On  leaving 
the  house  this  morning,  while  I  was  standing  at  our  door, 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      109 

the  fellow  slipped  the  cover  off  his  gun  and  fired  at 
me;  the  ball  struck  one  of  the  door-posts.  He  then  loaded 
and  fired  a  second  shot,  and  made  off  wi^h  himself." 

Early  in  July,  1806,  Henry  set  out  on  horseback,  ac- 
companied by  three  other  men,  for  a  trip  to  the  Mandan 
towns  on  the  Missouri  River.  The  weather  was  exceed- 
ingly hot,  and  the  mosquitoes  were  terribly  persistent  in 
unwelcome  attentions.  One  night  at  an  Ojibwas  village 
the  squaws  closed  the  openings  of  the  cabins  and  then 
built  a  smudge  fire  inside;  "but  to  no  purpose;  it  only 
made  matters  worse  by  choking  us  with  the  bitter  smoke. 
If  we  covered  our  heads,  we  were  suffocated  with  heat; 
if  we  remained  uncovered,  we  were  choked  with  smoke 
and  mosquitoes.  I,  therefore,  thought  best  to  get  out  of 
doors,  but  was  then  in  danger  of  being  trampled  to  death 
by  the  horses,  which  surrounded  the  cabins  to  enjoy  the 
smudge."  Next  day  the  mosquitoes  continued  so  trou- 
blesome that  it  was  only  with  difficulty  that  the  travelers, 
when  fording  streams,  could  prevent  their  horses  "  from 
throwing  themselves  down  and  rolling  in  the  water  to 
get  rid  of  those  cursed  insects." 

On  July  8th  they  reached  the  Assiniboine  River  about 
ten  miles  above  the  present  site  of  Winnipeg.  "  The  uncom- 
monly high  water,"  says  Henry,  "  obliged  us  to  make  a 
raft  to  transport  our  baggage  and  equipments  to  the 
N.  side.  One  of  our  party,  who  could  not  swim,  we 
placed  upon  the  raft,  and  set  adrift.  William  Henry  and 
I,  and  the  other  man,  took  to  the  water  upon  our  horses. 
William,  supposing  himself  an  expert  swimmer,  let  go  his 
horse,  and  nearly  paid  for  his  imprudence;  a  severe  cramp 
took  him  in  the  feet,  and  it  was  with  much  difficulty  he 
reached  the  shore.  Having  all  three  got  over,  we  left 
our  horses  to  feed,  whilst  we  went  down  river  in  search 


no      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

of  the  raft,  which  the  strong  current  had  carried  mucH 
further  than  we  supposed  it  would  have  done,  and  it  was 
some  time  before  we  could  reach  it.  This  was  very  dis- 
agreeable. We  were  entirely  naked,  so  that  the  mos- 
quitoes had  their  pleasure  with  us,  and  having  no  shoes, 
it  was  only  with  great  pain  that  we  could  walk  in  the 
sharp-pointed  grass.  We  found  the  man  on  the  raft  wait- 
ing for  us,  and  lost  no  time  in  dressing." 

At  his  Company's  post  at  the  mouth  of  Mouse  River 
Henry's  party  was  increased  to  seven  persons  and  eight 
horses.  They  were  soon  out  upon  the  bald  plains,  where 
they  were  forced  to  use  "buffalo  chips"  for  fuel,  and 
where  they  saw  many  "  jumping  deer,"  i.e.,  antelope. 
When  far  out  upon  the  plains  the  antelope  became  so 
tame  that  the  young  ones,  to  satisfy  their  curiosity,  would 
run  up  within  a  few  yards  of  the  travelers,  while  the 
mothers  would  also  approach,  though  more  cautiously. 
The  travelers  had  no  difficultv  in  killing  plenty  of  fat 
bull  buffaloes  for  meat,  though  fuel  was  so  scarce  that 
at  times  they  were  hardly  able  to  cook  the  meat.  Mos- 
quitoes continued  to  be  so  bad  that  the  horses  were  driven 
almost  frantic.  One  night  one  of  them  broke  his  picket 
line  and  in  jumping  and  prancing  about  came  down  upon 
the  leg  of  the  guide,  inflicting  a  painful  bruise.  In 
course  of  time  the  travelers  began  to  come  to  lakes,  the 
water  of  which,  though  clear,  was  so  full  of  alkali  as  to 
be  totally  undrinkable.  The  banks  of  some  of  these 
lakes  were  white  as  drifted  snow.  All  along  the  way  the 
party  kept  a  sharp  lookout  for  Indian  horse-thieves,  and 
their  watchfulness  increased  as  they  entered  the  Missouri 
country,  where  there  was  danger  of  meeting  the  dreaded 
Sioux.  Soon  after  coming  in  sight  of  the  great  river  one 
of  the  party  saw  two  buffalo  bulls  coming  round  a  hill, 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      in 

grazing  as  they  moved  along.  This  alarmed  some  of  the 
men,  who  insisted  that  the  bulls  were  horsemen  approach- 
ing; two  of  the  French  Canadians  even  declared  that 
they  could  see  the  riders  whipping  and  kicking  their 
horses,  as  was  the  Indian  custom  when  riding  at  full 
speed.  Henry  himself  could  see  that  the  moving  objects 
were  buffaloes  and  that  what  was  supposed  to  be  the 
riders'  arms  lashing  away  was  the  bulls'  tails,  which  were 
kept  in  continual  motion  to  drive  away  the  flies.  Noth- 
ing he  could  say  could  reassure  the  panic-stricken  men, 
who  believed  that  their  last  day  had  come.  Finally, 
however,  a  spy-glass  confirmed  Henry's  declarations. 
"  Bravery,"  says  he,  "  instantly  appeared  on  the  counte- 
nances of  those  who,  a  few  moments  before,  had  given 
themselves  up  for  lost." 

Next  day  they  saw  many  ripe  chokecherries,  rasp- 
berries, and  gooseberries,  and  passed  many  clusters  of 
prickly  pears.  Several  times  they  were  in  danger  of 
falling  into  deep  pits  which  the  Indians  had  dug  in  the 
path  to  catch  wolves  and  foxes  in  the  winter  time.  Some 
of  these  pits  were  ten  feet  deep  and  hollowed  out  to  a 
circumference  of  thirty  feet,  but  the  entrance  was  no 
wider  than  the  footpath  and  about  five  feet  in  length.  In 
the  season  when  fur  was  prime  the  holes  were  covered 
with  dry  grass,  and  several  animals  would  sometimes  be 
caught  in  the  pits  in  a  single  night.  In  the  afternoon 
they  drew  near  a  Mandan  village  on  the  bank  of  the 
Missouri,  and  passed  several  fields  of  corn,  beans, 
squashes,  and  sunflowers.  Sunflowers,  indeed,  were  grow- 
ing wild  in  every  direction.  They  also  passed  an  Indian 
cemetery  and  saw  great  numbers  of  "  dead  exposed  upon 
stages  about  eight  feet  from  the  ground.  Many  of  the 
coverings,  which  are  generally  of  dressed  leather  and 


112      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

parchment,  were  still  very  good,  whilst  others  were  de- 
cayed, and  nothing  but  the  bones  appeared;  others,  again, 
were  decaying  and  falling  to  the  ground  as  the  stages 
went  to  pieces." 

The  Mandans,  then  one  of  the  most  important  tribes 
of  the  Northwest,  lived  in  settled  villages  and  depended 
in  large  measure  upon  agriculture  for  a  livelihood.  They 
were  generally  friendly  to  white  men,  and  the  chief  of  the 
village,  Le  Chat  (the  Black  Cat),  welcomed  Henry's 
party  and  gave  them  a  hut  to  sleep  in.  "  On  going  into 
the  hut,"  says  Henry,  "  we  found  buffalo  hides  spread 
on  the  ground  before  the  fire  for  us  to  sit  upon,  and  were 
presented  with  two  large  dishes  of  boiled  corn  and  beans. 
After  that  they  gave  us  a  large  dish  of  boiled  dried  meat; 
but  few  of  us  could  eat  of  it,  as  it  had  too  strong  a  taste 
and  smell.  This  was  just  to  their  own  palate,  as  they 
seldom  eat  meat  until  it  begins  to  smell.  We  were  in- 
vited into  several  huts  successively  and  presented  with 
dried  meat  in  a  state  of  corruption,  corn  and  beans,  to- 
gether with  parched  corn  and  fresh  ears  pounded  up  in  a 
wooden  mortor;  this  last  dish  we  found  good." 

At  night  the  young  men  kept  watch  against  enemies, 
and  some  walked  about  the  village  singing  love  songs 
to  their  favorite  beauties.  During  the  day,  if  no  hunting 
party  was  to  be  undertaken,  the  young  men  spent  their 
time  on  the  tops  of  the  huts,  sleeping  in  the  sun,  or 
strolling  from  hut  to  hut,  eating  corn  and  smoking  Mis- 
souri tobacco.  Occasionally  they  had  races,  either  on 
foot  or  on  horseback,  or  practised  warlike  manceuvers. 
The  women  busied  themselves  performing  household  du- 
ties or  hoeing  in  the  fields.  The  hoes  used  were  made 
of  the  shoulder  blades  of  buffaloes  fastened  to  a  crooked 
stick.    One  of  the  tasks  of  the  women  was  to  pound  up 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY     113 

corn  in  mortars  made  for  that  purpose.  In  this  village 
Henry  saw  the  remains  of  an  excellent  corn  mill  which 
the  celebrated  explorers  Lewis  and  Clark  had  left  there 
two  years  before.  The  foolish  Indians  had  broken  it  up 
to  make  barbs  for  arrows;  the  largest  piece,  which  they 
had  been  unable  to  break  up,  they  had  fixed  to  a  wooden 
handle  and  used  to  pound  marrow-bones  to  make  grease. 
After  a  short  stay  at  the  first  village  Henry's  party 
crossed  the  Missouri  to  another.  The  horses  were  made 
to  swim  across  the  stream,  which  was  about  half  a  mile 
wide;  the  men  were  ferried  over  in  the  curious  craft 
called  "  bull-boats."  "  They  are  of  circular  form,"  says 
Henry;  "  the  timbers  are  only  a  few  bent  willows,  about 
three  inches  in  circumference,  over  which  is  stretched 
a  raw  buffalo  hide  with  the  hair  inside,  sewed  fast  to  the 
gunnel;  this  is  generally  of  willow,  about  two  inches  in 
diameter.  I  was  surprised  to  see  the  great  weight  these 
tender  vessels  carried.  We  embarked  baggage,  saddles, 
etc.,  weighing  at  least  two  hundred  pounds,  with  Mr. 
Chaboillez,  myself,  and  our  ferryman,  who  was  a  stout, 
lusty  fellow,  and  our  canoe  or  dish  could  have  supported 
at  least  one  hundred  pounds  more.  In  lieu  of  a  paddle 
they  use  a  pole  about  five  feet  long,  split  at  one  end,  to 
admit  a  piece  of  board  about  two  feet  long  and  half  a 
foot  broad,  which  is  lashed  to  the  pole  and  forms  a  sort 
of  cross;  there  is  but  one  for  each  canoe.  He  who  pad- 
dles makes  directly  for  the  opposite  shore;  every  stroke 
he  gives  turns  his  dish  almost  entirely  round;  to  recover 
his  position  and  go  on  his  intended  route,  he  must  give 
a  stroke  on  the  other  hand,  which  brings  him  up  again, 
and  so  on  until  he  gets  over,  not  without  drifting  down 
sometimes  nearly  a  mile.  Some,  I  observed,  were  more 
expert  than  others  in  managing  their  dishes,  and  did  not 


114      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

drift  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  As  their  vessels  are 
very  light,  they  take  the  precaution  to  carry  them  on 
their  heads,  or  slung  on  their  backs,  to  a  considerable 
distance  higher  up  the  river  than  where  they  intend  to 
land." 

Henry  says  that  from  a  distance  the  Mandan  villages 
"  appear  like  a  cluster  of  mole-hills  or  muskrat  cabins. 
The  neatly  circular  huts  are  placed  very  irregularly; 
some  so  close  to  each  other  as  scarcely  to  leave  a  foot- 
passage,  others  again  at  a  distance  of  twenty  to  thirty 
feet  apart.  But  about  the  center  of  each  village  is  an 
open  space  of  about  four  acres,  around  which  the  huts 
are  regularly  built  at  equal  distances,  fronting  the  open 
space." 

Some  of  the  huts  were  very  large.  Henry  measured 
one  of  those  in  which  he  lodged  and  "  found  it  ninety  feet 
from  the  door  to  the  opposite  side.  The  whole  space  is 
first  dug  out  about  one  and  one-half  feet  below  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth.  In  the  center  is  the  square  fireplace, 
about  five  feet  on  each  side,  dug  out  about  two  feet  below 
the  surface  of  the  ground  flat.  The  lower  part  of  the 
hut  is  constructed  by  erecting  strong  posts  about  six  feet 
out  of  the  ground,  at  equal  distances  from  each  other, 
according  to  the  proposed  size  of  the  hut,  as  they  are 
not  all  of  the  same  dimensions.  Upon  these  are  laid 
logs  as  large  as  the  posts,  reaching  from  post  to  post  to 
form  the  circle.  On  the  outer  side  are  placed  pieces  of 
split  wood  seven  feet  long,  in  a  slanting  direction,  one 
end  resting  on  the  ground,  the  other  leaning  against  the 
cross-logs  or  beams.  Upon  these  beams  rest  rafters  the 
thickness  of  a  man's  leg,  and  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  long, 
slanting  enough  to  drain  off  the  rain,  and  laid  so  close 
to  each  other  as  to  touch.     The  upper  ends  of  the  rafters 


;  1  wP^^i- 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY       115 

are  supported  upon  stout  pieces  of  squared  timber,  which 
last  are  supported  by  four  thick  posts  about  five  feet  in 
circumference,  fifteen  feet  out  of  the  ground  and  fifteen 
feet  asunder,  forming  a  square.  Over  these  squared 
timbers  others  of  equal  size  are  laid,  crossing  them  at 
right  angles,  leaving  an  opening  about  four  feet  square. 
This  serves  for  chimney  and  windows,  as  there  are  no 
other  openings  to  admit  light,  and  when  it  rains  even  this 
hole  is  covered  over  with  a  canoe.  The  whole  roof  is 
well  thatched  with  the  small  willows  in  which  the  Mis- 
souri abounds,  laid  on  to  a  thickness  of  six  inches  or  more, 
fastened  together  in  a  very  compact  manner  and  well 
secured  to  the  rafters.  Over  the  whole  is  spread  about 
one  foot  of  earth,  and  around  the  wall,  to  the  height  of 
three  or  four  feet,  is  commonly  laid  up  earth  to  the  thick- 
ness of  three  feet,  for  security  in  case  of  an  attack  and  to 
keep  out  the  cold.  The  door  is  five  feet  broad  and  six 
high,  with  a  covered  way  or  porch  on  the  outside  of 
the  same  height  as  the  door,  seven  feet  broad  and  ten  in 
length.  The  doors  are  made  of  raw  buffalo  hide  stretched 
uDon  a  frame  and  suspended  by  cords  from  one  of  the 
beams  which  form  the  circle.  Every  night  the  door  is 
barricaded  with  a  long  piece  of  timber." 

One  side  of  the  huts  was  generally  used  as  a  stable  for 
the  horses,  in  order  to  keep  these  valuable  animals  from 
being  stolen  by  lurking  Assiniboines  or  other  enemies. 
Only  a  railing  separated  the  animals  from  the  living 
quarters  of  the  people  themselves.  The  master  sat  upon 
a  willow  mat  covered  with  a  buffalo  skin,  and  here  he 
received  his  friends  and  smoked.  A  range  of  beds,  one 
for  each  of  his  wives,  extended  to  his  left;  then  came 
beds  for  the  young  people.  At  the  bottom  of  the  hut, 
fronting  the   master's   seat,   stood  his   medicine   stage. 


ii6      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Upon  it  usually  lay  a  pair  of  bull's  heads,  which  were 
esteemed  a  great  Manitou  and  protection;  there  also  were 
hung  up  the  master's  bows,  shields,  and  other  weapons, 
and  whatever  scalps  he  had  taken.  Near  the  stage  stood 
the  mortar  and  pestle  for  grinding  corn.  Fronting  the 
porch  was  a  stage  for  drying  meat,  corn,  beans,  and  sliced 
squashes. 

At  this  second  village  Henry  witnessed  the  return  of  a 
hunting  party  of  about  a  hundred  warriors,  each  of  which 
brought  on  his  horse  about  half  a  buffalo.  It  was  the 
custom  of  the  Mandans  usually  to  hunt  in  large  parties, 
and  they  rarely  used  firearms  for  buffalo,  bows  and 
arrows  being  considered  sufficiently  effective.  On  the 
return  of  a  hunting  party^  says  Henry,  "  the  horses  are 
instantly  unloaded  and  the  meat  is  taken  into  the  huts, 
where  it  is  spread  out  upon  the  ground  and  exposed  for 
some  time  before  the  master  or  mistress  of  the  hut  makes 
use  of  it.  Soon  afterward  the  women  whose  husbands 
or  sons  have  not  been  hunting  enter  the  huts  of  those 
who  have  secured  meat;  the  mistress  gives  them  a  share, 
and  thev  walk  away  with  it.  It  often  happens  that  so 
many  of  her  acquaintances  and  friends  thus  drop  in  that 
not  a  mouthful  remains  for  her  own  family.  When  this 
is  the  case,  she  in  turn  goes  to  the  huts  of  friends  who 
have  been  hunting,  and  comes  away  with  a  load.  It  is 
customary  for  them  to  go  into  as  many  huts  as  they  think 
proper,  and  bring  away  more  or  less,  according  to  the 
degree  of  intimacy  that  exists  between  the  families,  par- 
ticularly among  the  women;  for  they  are  not  without 
their  little  jealousies,  domestic  broils,  and  tales  of  scandal, 
like  those  of  civilized  nations.  It  is  also  customary  for 
the  old  men  and  old  women  who  have  no  sons  nor  any 
particular  friends  to  assist  them,  on  the  first  news  of  the 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      117 

hunters'  approach,  to  crawl  a  mile  or  more  out  of  the 
villages  and  sit  by  the  wayside,  where  almost  every 
hunter  in  passing  drops  them  a  piece  of  meat.  By  these 
means  every  individual  gets  a  share  of  what  has  been 
killed." 

In  their  agriculture  and  in  their  use  of  houses  the 
Mandans  had  made  some  progress  along  the  road  to 
civilization,  yet  they  were  still  scarcely  out  of  the  savage 
stage.  At  times  the  men  and  women  went  about  wearing 
little  or  no  clothing,  and  Henry  found  them  to  be  a  very 
immoral  people. 

Henry  and  his  party  also  visited  the  Gros  Ventres 
(Big  Bellies),  a  tribe  whose  way  of  living  closely  resem- 
bled that  of  the  Mandans.  The  white  men  accompanied 
the  Gros  Ventres  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  fierce 
Cheyennes,  but  the  negotiations  broke  up  in  a  great 
quarrel,  and  for  a  time  a  big  battle  appeared  imminent. 
Henry  gives  an  extended  account  of  the  painful  ordeals 
to  which  the  young  men  of  these  tribes  submitted.  "  The 
greater  part  of  the  men,"  says  he,  "  have  lost  a  joint  of 
several  fingers,  particularly  of  the  left  hand,  and  it  is  not 
uncommon  to  see  only  the  two  forefingers  and  thumbs 
entire.  Amputation  is  performed  for  the  loss  of  a  near 
relation,  and  likewise  during  the  days  of  penance,  on 
which  they  display  their  fortitude  and  courage  in  the 
following  manner:  When  a  young  man  has  attained  the 
age  of  twenty  years,  he  generally,  in  the  depth  of  winter, 
performs  his  penance  by  setting  out  entirely  naked  and 
alone,  with  only  two  or  three  pairs  of  shoes,  the  iron  barb 
of  the  arrow,  and  no  means  of  making  fire.  In  this  con- 
dition he  repairs  to  a  certain  high  hill,  a  day's  journey 
from  the  village.  On  this  hill  he  must  re^""^'^  as  many 
days  as  his  strength  will  permit,  during  which  time  he 


ii8     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

neither  eats,  drinks,  nor  sleeps,  but  passes  the  time  in 
dancing,  bawling,  howling,  and  lamenting.  Here  also  he 
amputates  a  finger  with  the  iron  barb  brought  for  that 
purpose.  Some  have  been  known  to  be  absent  seven  days 
in  the  severest  weather.  This  may  appear  incredible,  but 
I  have  it  from  several  eye-witnesses  of  such  pilgrimages, 
and  do  not  doubt  it.  After  several  days — more  or  fewer 
— the  penitent  makes  his  appearance,  coming  at  full 
speed,  and  as  there  is  continually  somebody  upon  the 
huts,  information  is  instantly  given  of  his  return.  He  is 
met  by  a  particular  friend,  who  has  kept  account  of  the 
number  of  days  he  has  been  absent,  and  for  every  day 
has  been  prepared  a  bull's  head,  to  which  has  been  fas- 
tened one  and  one-half  fathoms  of  cord.  The  other  end 
of  this  is  affixed  to  an  incision  in  the  penitent's  back  or 
shoulders,  by  pinching  up  a  fold  of  skin  and  flesh, 
through  which  is  thrust  the  barb  of  an  arrow;  as  many 
days  as  he  has  been  absent,  so  many  must  be  the  inci- 
sions, and  the  number  of  heads  must  also  tally  with  them. 
He  must  then  walk  around  the  village,  howling  and  bawl- 
ing, with  those  bulls'  heads  trailing  on  the  ground;  in  some 
places,  where  the  ground  is  rough,  the  poor  fellow  must 
pull  and  tug  hard  to  get  through,  as  the  horns  continually 
catch  in  uneven  spots,  and  often  fall  into  some  of  the 
empty  corn  pits,  where  they  would  hold  until  the  skin 
gave  way  or  the  cord  broke,  were  they  not  attended  to 
by  some  children,  who  make  it  their  business  to  disen- 
gage the  horns.  So  many  days  as  he  has  been  absent,  so 
many  times  must  he  walk  round  the  village,  never  ceasing 
to  utter  lamentations.  Some  have  been  known  to  fall 
senseless  during  this  painful  ordeal;  but  even  they  allow 
themselves  only  a  few  moments  to  recover,  and  proceed 
again.    Having  finished  the  necessary  rounds,  he  is  dis- 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      119 

engaged  from  the  bull's  head  by  his  friend,  with  a  long 
harangue,  applauding  his  courage  and  fortitude;  he  may 
then  retire  to  his  hut  and  take  care  of  his  wounds,  as  he 
is  in  a  shocking  condition.  Some  never  recover,  and 
others  languish  for  months  before  they  get  well." 

Lest  the  reader  imagine  that  Henry  overdraws  this  ac- 
count, it  should  be  said  that  there  is  ample  evidence  that 
it  was  the  custom  among  some  northwestern  tribes  for 
youths  entering  the  estate  of  manhood  to  submit  to  even 
worse  self-inflicted  tortures  than  those  just  described. 

On  the  return  from  the  Missouri  country  Henry  and 
his  party  endured  many  hardships.  Some  of  their  horses 
strayed  away  and  were  never  found,  but  the  party  finally 
reached  home  in  safety.  To  the  last  the  pestiferous  mos- 
quitoes continued  to  trouble  them,  and  near  the  end  of 
the  trip  Henry  was  driven  so  nearly  frantic  by  their  per- 
sistent attacks  that  he  whipped  up  his  weary  horse  and 
rode  the  last  few  miles  at  a  wild  gallop. 

Henry  spent  several  years  at  posts  up  and  down  the 
Saskatchewan.  There  he  became  well  acquainted  with 
the  Crees,  Blackfeet,  and  other  tribes. 

"  Their  tents,"  says  Henry,  in  describing  the  great  tribe 
of  Crees,  "  like  those  of  all  other  tribes  of  the  plains,  are 
of  dressed  leather,  erected  with  poles,  generally  seventeen 
in  number,  of  which  two  are  tied  together  about  three 
feet  from  the  top.  These  being  erected  and  set  apart  at 
the  base,  the  others  are  placed  against  them  in  a  slanting 
position,  meeting  at  the  top,  so  that  they  all  form  nearly 
a  circle,  which  is  then  covered  with  the  leather.  This 
consists  of  ten  to  fifteen  dressed  skins  of  the  buffalo, 
moose,  or  red  deer,  well  sewed  together  and  nicely  cut  to 
fit  the  conical  figure  of  the  poles,  with  an  opening  above, 
to  let  out  smoke  and  admit  the  light.    From  this  opening 


120     TRAILIMAKKRS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

down  to  the  door  the  two  edges  of  the  tent  are  brought 
close  together  and  well  secured  with  wooden  pegs  about 
six  inches  long,  leaving  for  the  door  an  oval  aperture 
about  two  feet  wide  and  three  feet  high,  below  which  the 
edges  are  secured  with  similar  pegs.  This  small  entrance 
does  well  enough  for  the  natives,  who  are  brought  up  to 
it  from  infancy,  but  a  European  is  puzzled  to  get  through, 
as  a  piece  of  hide  stretched  upon  a  frame  of  the  same 
shape  as  the  door,  but  somewhat  larger,  hangs  outside, 
and  must  be  raised  by  hand  to  pass.  These  tents  are 
spacious,  measuring  twenty  feet  in  diameter.  The  fire  is 
always  made  in  the  center,  around  which  they  generally 
place  a  range  of  stones  to  prevent  the  ashes  from  scatter- 
ing and  keep  the  fire  compact.  New  tents  are  perfectly 
white;  some  of  them  are  painted  with  red  and  black 
figures.  These  devices  are  generally  derived  from  their 
dreams,  being  some  sea-monster  or  other  hideous  animal, 
whose  description  has  been  handed  down  from  their  an- 
cestors. A  large  camp  of  such  tents,  pitched  regularly 
on  a  level  plain,  has  a  fine  effect  at  a  distance,  especially 
when  numerous  bands  of  horses  are  seen  feeding  in  all 
directions. 

"  The  men  in  general  tattoo  their  bodies  and  arms  very 
much.  The  women  confine  their  ornamentation  to  the 
chin,  having  three  perpendicular  lines  from  the  middle  of 
the  chin  to  the  lip,  and  one  or  more  running  on  each  side, 
nearly  parallel  with  the  corner  of  the  mouth.  Their  dress 
consists  of  leather;  that  of  the  men  is  a  pair  of  leggings, 
reaching  up  to  the  hip,  and  fastened  to  the  breech-clout 
girth.  The  clout  itself  is  generally  a  few  inches  of 
woolen  stuff;  but,  when  this  cannot  be  procured,  they  use 
a  piece  of  dressed  leather  about  nine  inches  broad  and 
four  feet  long,  whose  ends  are  drawn  through  the  girth 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      121 

and  hang  down  before  and  behind  about  a  foot.  They 
are  not  so  particular  and  decent  in  this  part  of  their 
dress  as  the  Saulteurs.  The  shirt  is  of  soft  dressed 
leather,  either  cabbrie  [antelope]  or  young  red  deer 
[elk],  close  about  the  neck  and  hanging  to  the  middle 
of  the  thigh;  the  sleeves  are  of  the  same,  loose  and  open 
under  the  arms  to  the  elbows,  but  thence  to  the  wrists 
sewed  tight.  The  cap  is  commonly  a  piece  of  leather,  or 
skin  with  the  hair  on,  shaped  to  fit  the  head,  and  tied 
under  the  chin;  the  top  is  usually  decorated  with  feathers 
or  other  ornament.  Shoes  are  made  of  buffalo  hide  dressed 
in  the  hair,  and  mittens  of  the  same.  Over  the  whole  a 
buffalo  robe  is  thrown,  which  serves  as  covering  day  and 
night.  Such  is  their  common  dress;  but  on  particular 
occasions  they  appear  to  greater  advantage,  having  their 
cap,  shirt,  leggings,  and  shoes  perfectly  clean  and  white, 
trimmed  with  porcupine-quills  and  other  ingenious  work 
of  their  women,  who  are  supposed  to  be  the  most  skilful 
hands  in  the  country  at  decorations  of  this  kind.  Their 
dress  consists  of  the  same  materials  as  the  men's.  Their 
leggings  do  not  reach  above  the  knee,  and  are  gathered 
below  that  joint;  their  shoes  always  lack  decoration.  The 
shift  or  body-garment  reaches  down  to  the  calf,  where  it 
is  generally  fringed  and  trimmed  with  quill-work;  the 
upper  part  is  fastened  over  the  shoulders  by  strips  of 
leather;  a  flap  or  cape  hangs  down  about  a  foot  before 
and  behind,  and  is  ornamented  with  quill-work  and  fringe. 
This  covering  is  quite  loose,  but  tied  around  the  waist  with 
a  belt  of  stiff  parchment,  fastened  on  the  side,  where  also 
some  ornaments  are  suspended.  The  sleeves  are  detached 
from  the  body-garment;  from  the  wrist  to  the  elbow  they 
are  sewed,  but  thence  to  the  shoulder  they  are  open  under- 
neath and  drawn  up  to  the  neck,  where  they  are  fastened 


122     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

across  the  breast  and  back.  Their  ornaments  are  two  or 
three  coils  of  brass  wire  twisted  around  the  rim  of  each 
ear,  in  which  incisions  are  made  for  the  purpose;  blue 
beads,  brass  rings,  quill-work,  and  fringe  occasionally 
answer.  Vermilion  is  much  used  by  the  women  to  paint 
the  face.  Their  hair  is  generally  parted  on  the  crown,  and 
fastened  behind  each  ear  in  large  knots,  from  which  are 
suspended  bunches  of  blue  beads,  or  other  ingenious  work 
of  their  own.  The  men  adjust  their  hair  in  various  forms; 
some  have  it  parted  on  top  and  tied  in  a  tail  on  each 
side,  while  others  make  one  long  queue  which  hangs  down 
behind,  and  around  which  is  twisted  a  strip  of  otter  skin 
or  dressed  buffalo  entrails.  This  tail  is  frequently  in- 
creased in  thickness  and  length  by  adding  false  hair,  but 
others  allow  it  to  flow  loose  naturally.  Combs  are  seldom 
used  by  the  men,  and  they  never  smear  the  hair  with 
grease,  but  red  earth  is  sometimes  put  upon  it.  White 
earth  daubed  over  the  hair  generally  denotes  mourning. 
The  young  men  sometimes  have  a  bunch  of  hair  on  the 
crown,  about  the  size  of  a  small  teacup,  and  nearly  in 
the  shape  of  that  vessel  upside  down,  to  which  they  fasten 
various  ornaments  of  feathers,  quill-work,  ermine  tails, 
etc.  Red  and  white  earth  and  charcoal  are  much  used  in 
their  toilets;  with  the  former  they  usually  daub  their 
robes  and  other  garments,  some  red  and  others  white. 
The  women  comb  their  hair  and  use  grease  on  it." 

At  these  Plains  posts  the  traders  were  greatly  troubled 
by  Indian  horse  thieves.  Henry's  pages  are  full  of  ref- 
erences to  losses  of  this  sort.  In  the  autumn  of  1809 
when  Henry  was  stationed  at  Fort  Vermilion,  the  white 
men  had  the  good  fortune  to  capture  a  Cree  who  at- 
tempted to  make  off  with  some  of  their  horses.  The  man 
was  a  notorious  thief  and  murderer,  and  the  traders  re- 


bo 

o 
Q 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      123 

solved  to  make  an  example  of  him.  A  sort  of  trial  was 
held,  and  the  Indian  was  found  guilty.  In  the  morning 
of  the  next  day  he  was  led  down  to  the  river  bank  below 
the  Hudson's  Bay  house  and  was  shot  down  by  a  firing 
squad  of  fifteen  men. 

For  some  years  Henry  shifted  up  and  down  the  Sas- 
katchewan from  one  post  to  another,  trading  with  the 
Crees,  Bloods,  Blackfeet,  Sarcees,  Slaves,  Assiniboines, 
Piegans,  and  other  tribes.  He  had  many  dangerous  ex- 
periences, and  tells  many  tales  of  these  and  of  the  brutal 
conflicts  between  the  Indians  themselves.  It  was  to  the 
interest  of  the  traders  to  keep  the  tribes  at  peace  with 
one  another,  but  often  they  found  the  task  beyond  their 
power. 

For  a  time  he  was  stationed  at  Rocky  Mountain  House 
on  the  North  Saskatchewan  in  the  foothills  of  the  moun- 
tains. He  gives  very  full  details  of  the  natives  and 
natural  wonders  of  the  place,  and  describes  vast  beds  of 
coal  which  he  saw  in  the  river  banks.  It  is  only  now 
that  we  are  beginning  to  realize  that  in  this  region  there 
exists  one  of  the  greatest  coal  deposits  in  the  world. 

In  the  late  winter  of  181 1  he  made  a  hard  trip  with 
snowshoes  and  sleds  through  Howse  Pass  over  the  great 
divide  to  the  head  of  a  stream  flowing  into  the  Columbia. 
He  was  not,  however,  the  first  man  to  do  this,  as  we  shall 
see  a  little  later.  On  this  trip  he  saw  and  obtained  speci- 
mens of  the  famous  bighorn  sheep.  He  also  saw  bands 
of  the  little  known  white  goats,  but  they  were  upon  such 
inaccessible  cliffs  and  peaks  that  neither  he  nor  any  of 
his  hunters  were  able  to  kill  one. 

The  Indians  west  of  the  mountains  made  an  excellent 
kind  of  bow  out  of  slips  of  the  horns  of  the  sheep.  The 
outside  of  the  horn  was  left  undressed  but  was  overlaid 


124     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

with  several  layers  of  sinew  glued  to  the  thickness  of  a 
third  of  an  inch  and  then  covered  with  rattlesnake  skin. 
The  inside  of  the  bow  was  smoothly  polished  and  dis- 
played several  ridges  of  the  horn.  The  bows  were 
three  feet  long  and  would  throw  an  arrow  an  amazing 
distance.  The  arrows  were  longer  than  those  used  by 
the  plains  Indians,  were  well  feathered,  and  in  the  past 
had  been  tipped  with  flint  but  in  more  recent  years  with 
iron.  These  bows  were  held  in  such  esteem  that  a  plains 
Indian  would  sometimes  trade  a  gun  or  a  horse  for  one 
of  them. 

While  stationed  at  the  Rocky  Mountain  House  Henry 
bought  of  an  Indian  a  large  black  dog,  "  of  a  breed  be- 
tween a  hound  and  a  Newfoundland,"  which  had  been 
captured  by  a  raiding  party  that  had  plundered  and  mur- 
dered some  American  traders  in  the  Missouri  country. 
The  dog  would  not  permit  the  Indians  to  hitch  him  to  a 
sled,  and  he,  therefore,  came  to  the  post  perfectly  light 
and  free.  "  He  entered  my  house,"  says  Henry,  "  with- 
out any  ceremony,  looked  about,  jumped  and  fawned 
upon  us,  and  would  not  return  to  the  Indian  tents.  His 
master  had  to  take  him  away  with  a  line,  and  keep  him 
tied  to  a  tentpole,  where  a  wolfskin  was  spread  for  him 
to  lie  upon.  On  their  going  away  I  purchased  him  for 
a  fathom  of  tobacco  and  a  scalper,  and  the  poor  beast 
was  rejoiced  to  remain  with  us." 

In  1 8 13  Henry  crossed  the  continent  and  established 
himself  near  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  at  Astoria,  the 
post  founded  a  few  years  before  by  the  celebrated  John 
Jacob  Astor.  Here,  as  agent  of  the  Northwest  Company, 
he  dealt  with  the  Chinook  tribes,  and  was  associated  with 
many  of  the  characters  made  familiar  by  Washington 
Irving's  Astoria.     He  has  much  to  say  of  salmon,  sea 


ADVENTURES  OF  ALEXANDER  HENRY      125 

lions,  commass,  and  other  products  of  the  region.  He 
was  present  when  the  British  man-of-war  Raccoon  seized 
the  post  and  substituted  the  Union  Jack  for  the  Stars  and 
Stripes — temporarily,  it  proved.  Here  Henry  ended 
his  adventurous  career,  for  on  May  22,  18 14,  a  sailboat 
in  which  he  and  half  a  dozen  others  were  going  from  the 
post  to  a  ship  called  the  Isaac  Todd  was  upset  and  Henry 
and  all  the  others  except  one  man  perished. 


CHAPTER  IX 

METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  IN  THE  FUR  LAND 

Ours  is  an  age  of  rapid  transit.  The  Atlantic  has  been 
crossed  by  steamer  in  less  than  five  days  and  by  airplane 
in  sixteen  hours  and  twelve  minutes.  Express  trains 
whisk  a  traveler  from  New  York  to  Chicago,  and  the  trip 
across  the  continent  can  be  made  in  less  than  a  week. 
Men  think  nothing  of  motoring  forty,  fifty,  or  even  a 
hundred  miles  to  fill  a  dinner  engagement. 

So  accustomed  have  we  become  to  the  virtual  annihila- 
tion of  space  that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  understand  and 
appreciate  the  tremendous  difficulties  which  the  early 
explorers  of  America  faced.  In  reading  about  their  trials 
we  must  recall  that  there  were  then  no  steam  engines  or 
electric  motors,  no  telegraphs  or  telephones,  that  travel  on 
water  must  be  performed  by  wind  power  or  hand  power, 
that  travel  on  land  must  be  on  foot  or  at  best  on  the 
backs  of  horses,  that  there  were  no  roads  or  even  trails, 
that  the  supply  of  food  was  always  precarious,  and  that 
in  the  wilderness  lurked  savage  beasts  and  even  more 
savage  and  dangerous  men.  A  journey  across  the  At- 
lantic was  then  an  affair  of  months  not  days,  while  that 
across  the  continent  required  years  and  was  not  per- 
formed until  three  hundred  years  after  Columbus  found 
the  New  World. 

Take,  for  example,  the  matter  of  food.  The  amount 
that  can  be  carried  in  a  canoe  or  on  pack-horses  is  limited 
to  a  few  months'  supply  at  most.    If  the  traveler  starts 

126 


METHODS  OF  TR  <\VEL  IN  THE  FUR  LAND      127 

out  on  foot  with  a  pack-sack,  he  can  take  with  him,  in 
addition  to  his  gun,  blanket,  and  other  necessary  articles, 
a  supply  for  only  a  week  or  two;  and  if  he  is  penetrating 
into  the  wilderness  there  are  no  stores  at  which  he  can 
buy  more.  Of  course,  in  a  new  country  fish  can  some- 
times be  caught  or  game  killed,  but  it  is  dangerous  to 
depend  upon  doing  either.  I  recall  that  once  in  the  moun- 
tains of  northern  British  Columbia  my  French  Canadian 
helper  and  I  were  seven  days  from  our  canoe  and  cache; 
we  had  hunted  along  the  way  and  had  seen  some  moun- 
tain goats  but  had  killed  nothing  except  a  Franklin's 
grouse;  and  the  food  in  our  pack-sacks  was  down  to  two 
or  three  cups  of  flour  and  corn  meal,  a  bit  of  bacon  the 
size  of  one's  hand,  and  a  little  tea  and  salt.  In  this  case 
all  turned  out  happily,  for  the  next  day  I  killed  a  bear 
and  the  next  day  two  mountain  sheep,  so  that  we  had  an 
abundance  of  meat;  but,  had  we  not  found  game,  we 
would  have  been  forced  to  starve  for  several  days  on 
our  way  back  to  the  canoe  and  cache. 

The  slow  rate  of  travel  in  pioneer  days  is  another  mat- 
ter that  can  scarcely  be  understood  by  those  who  are 
accustomed  only  to  motor  cars  and  express  trains  and  who 
have  never  journeyed  under  primitive  conditions.  To-day 
one  can  be  whisked  by  train  from  Montreal  to  the  north- 
western shore  of  Lake  Superior  in  thirty-six  hours; 
La  Verendrye  and  his  party  were  seventy-two  days  mak- 
ing the  same  journey  in  their  birch  canoes.  The  trip 
from  the  Canadian  plains  across  the  mountains  to  the 
Pacific  can  be  made  by  the  Canadian  Pacific  or  the 
Grand  Trunk  Pacific  in  twenty-seven  hours;  it  was  an 
affair  of  months  of  toilsome  and  dangerous  effort  in  Mac- 
kenzie's time. 

Again  a  personal  experience  may  be  helpful.     One 


128      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

September  morning  ten  years  ago  our  pack-train,  which 
had  just  left  Edson,  then  track's  end  on  the  new  Grand 
Trunk  Pacific,  came  out  upon  a  bluff  overlooking  the 
McLeod  River  in  western  Alberta  and  we  beheld  before 
us  the  white-toothed  summits  of  the  Rockies  towering 
hidh  beyond  the  green  sea  of  spruce-covered  foothills. 
Off  to  the  southwest  stood  one  whose  summit  resembled 
the  roof  of  a  great  house. 

"  De  sheep  lick  is  dere,"  said  Jimmy  Paul,  our  Cree 
guide;   "maybe  you  get  some  bighorns  dere." 

The  mountain  did  not  seem  so  very  far  away,  but  it 
took  us  nine  weary  days  to  reach  it.  And  I  might  add 
that  when  we  got  back  to  Edson  on  the  return,  it  took 
me  only  five  days  to  make  the  trip  by  train  back  to  my 
home  in  Indiana. 

In  the  Fur  Land  long  trips  in  summer  were  generally 
made  by  boat  or  canoe  and  in  winter  by  dog  sledge.  In 
the  Plains  region  at  all  seasons  of  the  year  much  use  was 
also  made  of  horses. 

Supplies  and  trading  goods  were  brought  in  during  the 
summer  either  by  way  of  the  Great  Lakes  or  Hudson 
Bay.  In  either  case  long  river  journeys  were  required  to 
bring  them  to  the  region  of  Lake  Winnipeg,  and  those 
destined  for  posts  farther  west  were  then  taken  up  the 
Saskatchewan  and  thence  scattered  by  other  streams  to 
posts  on  the  Mackenzie,  Peace,  and  elsewhere. 

It  was  a  slow  trade,  and  those  who  engaged  in  it  had 
to  wait  a  long  time  for  their  profits.  Alexander  Mac- 
kenzie tells  us  that  in  his  day  the  Canadian  agents  of  his 
Comoanv  were  obliofed  to  order  their  goods  from  England 
in  October,  eighteen  months  before  they  could  leave 
Montreal.  The  goods  would  arrive  in  Canada  the  follow- 
ing summer,  and  during  the  next  winter  they  would  be 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  IN  THE  FUR  LAND      129 

made  up  into  such  articles  as  the  Indians  desired  and 
would  be  packed  into  parcels  of  about  ninety  pounds  each. 
In  the  following  May  the  bundles  would  be  started  in 
birch  canoes  for  the  Northwest  by  way  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  the  Ottawa,  Lake  Nipissing,  French  River, 
Lake  Huron,  Lake  Superior,  Rainy  Lake,  Lake  Winnipeg, 
and  the  Saskatchewan  River.  Many  portages  had  to  be 
made  along  the  way,  and  months  elapsed  before  the  goods 
reached  their  destination.  They  were  then  exchanged  for 
furs,  which,  in  the  words  of  Mackenzie,  "  come  to 
Montreal  the  next  fall,  and  from  thence  are  shipped, 
chiefly  to  London,  where  they  are  not  sold  or  paid  for 
before  the  succeeding  spring,  or  even  as  late  as  June; 
which  is  forty-two  months  after  the  goods  were  ordered 
in  Canada;  thirty-six  after  they  were  shipped  from  Eng- 
land, and  twenty-four  after  they  had  been  forwarded  from 
Montreal."  Indeed  in  the  case  of  a  few  of  the  most  re- 
mote fur  posts  twelve  months  longer  were  required,  which 
meant  a  period  of  almost  five  years  between  the  time  the 
goods  were  ordered  and  when  the  furs  were  finally  sold. 
Such  trade  called  for  large  capital,  and  the  interest  charge 
was,  of  course,  very  heavy. 

The  articles  most  in  demand  for  the  Indian  trade  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  coarse  woolen  cloths,  blankets,  arms, 
ammunition,  tobacco,  linens,  coarse  sheetings,  thread, 
lines,  twine,  knives,  axes,  brass  and  copper  kettles,  hand- 
kerchiefs, and  spirituous  liquors. 

In  Mackenzie's  time  a  typical  year's  trade  in  furs  by 
way  of  Canada  included  106,000  beaver  skins,  2,100 
bear  skins,  41,500  fox  skins,  4,600  otter  skins,  17,000 
musquash  skins,  32,000  marten  skins,  500  buffalo'  robes, 
6,000  lynx  skins,  600  wolverine  skins,  1,650  fisher  skins, 
3,800  wolf  skins,  750  elk  skins,  and  1,950  deer  skins.    In 


I30      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

addition,  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  took  out  many 
more  by  way  of  Hudson  Bay. 

At  the  time  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  was  compet- 
ing with  the  Northwest  Company  it  made  use  in  large 
measure  of  heavy  wooden  boats  to  transport  its  goods 
to  and  from  the  interior.  These  craft  had  the  advan- 
tage of  great  strength,  and  they  could  endure  many  hard 
knocks,  but  it  was  hard  work  to  move  them  upstream  or 
across  portages. 

The  Northwest  Company  generally  used  birchbark 
canoes,  and  after  the  consolidation  of  the  two  companies 
in  1 82 1  this  craft  became  popular  with  all  the  traders. 
Some  of  these  canoes  were  as  much  as  ninety  feet  long, 
though  thirty-six  feet  was  a  more  common  length.  All 
were  capable  of  carrying  a  very  heavy  load.  At  the  same 
time  they  were  comparatively  light,  were  easily  tracked 
or  poled  upstream,  and,  compared  with  the  wooden  boats, 
it  was  child's  play  to  carry  them  over  a  portage.  Their 
great  weakness  was  that  they  were  very  easily  injured. 
If  one  so  much  as  touched  a  rock  or  snag,  a  leak  was 
almost  inevitable.  Every  canoe  carried  a  supply  of  birch- 
bark,  gum,  and  fibrous  roots  of  spruce  or  cedar  called 
"  watape,"  for  putting  on  patches,  and  hardly  a  day 
would  pass  that  they  must  not  be  used.  The  journals  of 
the  explorers  and  early  fur  traders  are  full  of  accounts 
of  "  breaking  "  canoes  and  of  delays  spent  in  repairing 
them.  Many  of  the  canoes  were  fancifully  painted  on 
bow  and  stern  with  mystical  figures  that  were  supposed 
to  increase  the  speed  of  the  craft. 

Some  of  the  canoe-men  were  Scotchmen  or  Orkneymen, 
but  during  most  of  the  nineteenth  century  by  far  the 
greater  number  were  French  Canadians  and  half-breeds. 
The  French  Canadian  and  half-breed  voyageurs  were  a 


e^ 


-■       Uh 


u 


O 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  IN  THE  FUR  LAND      131 

happy-go-lucky  set,  content  with  the  world  if  their 
stomachs  were  full  of  grub  and  their  pipes  full  of  tobacco. 
Although  most  of  them  were  usually  deeply  in  debt  to  the 
Company,  they  would  paddle  gaily  over  lakes  and  down 
rivers  singing  boat-songs,  some  of  them  brought  over 
from  France  generations  before.  They  were  very  fond 
of  bright-colored  clothing,  and  their  appearance  was  most 
picturesque.  Such  a  man  would  paddle  all  day  and  dance 
all  night  and  was  ready,  whenever  opportunity  offered, 
to  drink  strong  waters  as  long  as  the  supply  lasted. 

Let  us  follow  for  a  little  while  a  brigade  of  such  canoes 
as  it  leaves  a  Hudson's  Bay  fort  on  the  border  in  the  year 
1830  for  a  post  farther  west.  The  fort  itself  is  sur- 
rounded by  a  palisade  of  logs  set  on  end  in  the  ground 
and  about  twelve  feet  high,  the  stockade  being  flanked 
at  each  corner  with  a  two-story  bastion,  also  of  logs,  from 
loopholes  in  the  walls  of  which  a  flanking  fire  can  be 
delivered  against  any  assailants.  Within  the  stockade 
stand  the  log  storehouses  and  living  quarters,  and  over 
all  towers  a  flagstaff  from  which  floats  the  Company's 
flag,  bearing  the  motto  "  Pro  pelle  cutem/'  which  means, 
"  Skin  for  skin." 

At  the  edge  of  the  river  threescore  men  have  launched 
a  dozen  birchbark  canoes  and  are  loading  into  them 
freight  packages,  blankets,  guns,  kettles,  and  other  para- 
phernalia. During  this  process  great  care  is  taken  to 
prevent  the'  canoes  from  touching  anything  except  the 
water,  for  a  scrape  even  against  the  gravel  of  the  bottom 
may  start  a  leak.  The  swarthy  voyageurs,  resplendent 
in  scarlet  sashes,  beaded  moose-hide  moccasins,  and 
colored  kerchiefs  tied  turban-fashion  round  their  heads, 
step  lightly  into  the  canoes,  the  bowman  being  the  last  to 
enter.    The  canoes  are  then  shoved  out  into  the  current 


132      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

and  fall  into  irregular  line,  one  behind  the  other.  Pipes 
are  lighted,  the  paddles  dip  in  rhythm,  there  are  parting 
shouts  and  salutes  to  those  left  behind,  and  the  flotilla 
swings  round  a  bend  on  its  long  westward  journey. 

The  tall  trees  on  shore  seem  marching  past  in  stately 
procession,  while  ahead  flocks  of  ducks  reluctantly  take 
wing  and  fly  downstream,  to  repeat  the  process  again 
and  again  every  mile  or  so.  Presently  some  one  starts 
up  a  lively  chanson  a  Vaviron  known  as  The  White  Rose, 
and  the  chorus  echoes  from  bank  to  bank  of  the  silent 
river  and  up  through  the  spruce-covered  hills: 

"  Je  n'ai  pas  trouve  personne 
Que  le  rossignol  chantant  la  belle  rose, 

La  belle  rose  dii  rosier  blancf 
Qui  me  dit  dans  son  langage 
Marie-toi,  car  il  est  temps,  a  la  belle  rose, 

A  la  belle  rose  du  rosier  bland 
Comment  veux-tu  que  je  me  marie  avec  la  belle  rose. 

La  belle  rose  du  rosier  blanc? 
Mon  pere  n'est  pas  content  de  la  belle  rose, 

De  la  belle  rose  du  rosier  bland 

Ni  mon  pere,  ni  mon  m^re, 
Ni  aucun  de  nics  parents. 

La  belle  rose  du  rosier  bland  " 

For  miles  all  is  easy  going,  then  a  roar  is  heard  ahead 
which  gradually  grows  louder  and  louder.  The  current 
quickens,  and  across  the  stream  from  shore  to  shore 
stretches  a  long  reach  of  turbulent  white  water.  The 
bowman  in  the  foremost  canoe  stands  up  and  takes  a 
careful  survey  of  the  rapid.  It  is  full  of  jagged  rocks 
and  to  the  uninitiated  eye  there  seems  no  possible  pas- 


/■'}■, nil   II  pholograj^li   l<y   I- .   (  .   S'v,niiirii 

Portaging  a  dugout  canoe  on  the  Upper  Finlay  River 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  IN  THE  FUR  LAND      133 

sage,  but  the  experienced  eye  of  the  bowman  quickly 
picks  out  a  practicable  route,  and  he  indicates  it  to  the 
steersman,  who,  as  the  craft  draws  nearer,  also  stands  up 
and  studies  the  situation.  Now  they  are  in  white  water, 
and  the  canoe  goes  glancing  downward  almost  with  the 
speed  of  an  arrow.  Destruction  seems  imminent  more 
than  once,  but  the  crew  are  fully  masters  of  the  situation, 
and  deft  paddling  at  the  proper  time  enables  them  to 
avoid  all  obstacles.  Soon  they  are  riding  safely  in  the 
eddy  at  the  foot  of  the  rapids  and  are  commenting 
critically  upon  the  expertness  of  the  crews  behind  them. 

To  run  rapids  that  may  to  a  green  hand  look  extremely 
dangerous  is  to  experienced  canoe-men  mere  child's  play. 
More  dangerous  rapids  call  for  close  attention,  and  the 
right  thing  must  be  done  at  exactly  the  right  moment. 
Occasionally  rapids  are  met  that  only  the  boldest  and 
most  expert  will  attempt,  and  even  they  occasionally 
come  to  grief. 

Towards  noon  the  flotilla  comes  to  a  spot  where  the 
river  narrows  and  swings  between  high  rocky  banks  and 
then  goes  plunging  over  a  ledge  twenty  feet  in  height.  A 
portage  must  be  made.  While  most  of  the  men  are  carry- 
ing the  goods  and  canoes  along  a  well-worn  track  two 
hundred  yards  in  length,  the  cooks  build  fires  and  cook 
the  midday  meal.  This  eaten,  the  flotilla  is  off  again,  to 
camp  that  evening  in  some  favorable  spot.  So  goes  the 
journey,  day  after  day,  down  the  river  and  through  great 
lakes  until  at  last  the  mouth  of  the  great  Saskatchewan 
is  reached. 

Then  the  real  journey  begins.  Only  in  comparatively 
still  water  is  it  possible  to  advance  upstream  by  paddling. 
Poles  shod  with  iron  are  brought  into  use,  and  in  the 
really  swift  stretches  men  walk  ahead  on  shore  tracking 


134     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

the  canoes,  that  is,  pulling  them  along  with  ropes.  This 
poling  and  tracking  work  is  terribly  exhausting,  and  when 
camp  is  made  at  night  there  is  much  less  merriment  and 
hilarity  than  was  the  case  on  the  downstream  journey. 

As  winter  draws  on  there  is  a  period  when  travel  by 
any  method  is  difficult  and  disagreeable.  There  is  enough 
ice  running  in  the  rivers  to  prohibit  navigation  by  boats 
or  canoes,  while  the  snow  on  land  is  not  yet  deep  enough 
for  sledging.  But  presently  winter  closes  down  in 
earnest;  deep  snows  cover  the  ground;  the  rivers  and 
lakes  freeze  so  solid  that  it  is  safe  to  travel  on  them. 
INIeanwhile  old  snowshoes  have  been  restrung  with 
babiche,  as  the  strings  of  caribou  or  moose  hide  are 
called,  or  new  ones  are  made  altogether;  sledges  and  dog 
harness  are  put  in  order.  Then  it  is  that  the  dogs  which 
have  spent  the  summer  prowling  about  the  cabins  of 
the  half-breeds,  snatching  up  everything  eatable  that 
comes  in  their  way,  fighting  each  other,  and  usually 
half-starving  in  preparation  for  the  hard  work  ahead, 
come  in  demand. 

These  dogs  are  of  almost  every  breed  or  a  mixture  of 
almost  every  breed.  In  the  far  north  one  sees  occasion- 
ally the  pure  husky  of  the  Eskimos,  with  bushy  tails,  long 
hair,  fox-shaped  heads,  and  sharp-pointed  ears.  But 
most  sledge  dogs  are  mere  curs,  without  any  pride  of 
ancestry.  They  are  "  large,  long-legged,  and  wolfish,  with 
sharp  muzzles,  pricked  ears,  and  thick,  straight,  wiry 
hair.  White  is  one  of  the  most  usual  colors,  but  brown, 
blue-gray,  red,  yellow,  and  white  marked  with  spots  of 
black,  or  of  the  other  various  hues,  are  also  common. 
Some  of  them  are  black  with  white  paws,  others  are  cov- 
ered with  long  rough  hair,  like  Russian  setters.  There 
are  others  of  a  light  bluish-gray,  with  dark,  almost  black 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  IN  THE  FUR  LAND      135 

spots  spread  over  the  whole  body.  Almost  all  of  them 
have  black  noses,  but  with  some  of  the  lighter-colored 
ones  this  part  is  red,  brown,  or  pink,  which  has  a  very- 
ugly  effect.  Most  of  them  are  very  wolfish  in  appear- 
ance, many  being  half  or  partly,  or  all  but  entirely,  wolves 
in  blood.  One  frequently  sees  dark-gray  dogs  which  are 
said  to  be  almost  pure  wolves.  Seen  upon  the  prairie,  it 
is  almost  impossible  to  distinguish  them  from  the  ordinary 
wolf  of  the  middle-sized  variety;  and  their  tempers  are 
spoken  of  as  a  match  for  their  looks." 

In  summer  the  dogs  are  generally  left  to  shift  for  them- 
selves and,  as  has  already  been  said,  lead  a  miserable, 
half-starved  existence.  But  by  experience  their  masters 
have  learned  that  dogs  cannot  work  without  eating,  and 
in  winter  more  attention  is  paid  to  providing  them  with 
food.  Meat  of  any  kind,  pemmican,  or  whatever  offers, 
is  given  them;  one  of  the  commonest  kinds  of  dog  food 
is  dried  whitefish.  The  food  is  doled  out  to  the  dogs 
every  evening,  hardly  ever  enough  to  satisfy  their  wolfish 
appetites;  it  is  only  when  moose,  caribou,  or  other  big 
game  is  killed  that  the  poor  beasts  are  likely  to  have  a 
real  "  feed."  When  their  rations  are  tossed  to  them, 
they  bolt  the  food  as  fast  as  they  can  swallow  it,  partly 
in  the  hope  that  they  may  be  able  to  steal  something 
from  slower  comrades;  at  feeding  time,  therefore,  it  is 
necessary  for  the  drivers  to  stand  ready  with  whips  and 
clubs  to  see  that  each  dog  has  his  share.  When  really 
hungry,  some  dogs  will  eat  their  harness  or  even  gnaw 
holes  in  the  lodges. 

Food  for  the  dogs  forms  one  of  the  grave  problems  on 
long  trips  through  unsettled  country.  A  dog  will  eat  in 
about  two  weeks  all  that  he  can  pull;  hence  that  length 
of  time  forms  about  the  limit  to  a  dog-sledge  journey 


136      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

unless  food  can  be  bought  along  the  way  or  fish  caught 
or  game  killed.  Some  Arctic  explorers,  Peary  for  exam- 
ple, use  the  plan  of  killing  the  weaker  dogs  and  feeding 
them  to  their  comrades,  when  the  supply  of  dog  food 
becomes  low.  Sometimes  it  has  happened  that  at  the 
end  of  a  long  journey  the  dogs  will  have  eaten  not  only 
all  the  food  but  also  most  of  their  fellows. 

The  sledges  used  are  of  various  kinds.  Some  have 
runners,  but  those  in  use  in  the  Northwest  are  generally 
of  the  toboggan  kind.  A  common  way  to  make  a  sledge 
of  the  last  sort  is  to  take  a  board  of  hard-wood  about 
half  an  inch  thick,  fifteen  or  twenty  inches  wide,  and 
eight  or  ten  feet  long,  steam  and  bend  one  end  up  in  the 
form  of  a  half  circle.  Sometimes  two  narrower  boards 
are  used  instead  of  one.  To  this  board  a  light  boxlike 
frame  is  lashed  with  rawhide,  if  the  sled  is  intended  to 
carry  a  passenger,  and  this  box  is  lined  with  furs  or 
blankets  to  keep  the  occupant  warm.  If  designed  pri- 
marily for  freight  purposes,  however,  a  wrapper  of  moose 
or  caribou  hide  may  be  lashed  to  the  board,  the  load  is 
stowed  inside  this,  and  then  the  wrapper  is  laced  on  top, 
iso  that,  in  case  of  a  capsize,  nothing  can  fall  out  and  all 
that  is  necessary  is  for  the  driver  to  right  the  sledge. 

The  dog  harness  varies  greatly  from  rude  thongs  of 
rawhide  to  gaily  ornamented  outfits  of  leather,  with 
buckles  and  other  supposed  improvements.  For  travel- 
ing on  ice  the  dogs  may  be  hitched  abreast,  but  in  the 
woods  or  all  broken  country  they  must  be  placed  in 
tandem  fashion.  Naturally  the  position  of  leading  dog 
is  most  important,  and  this  place  is  assigned  to  the  best- 
trained  animal  in  the  team.  When  the  snow  is  deep,  one 
man  goes  ahead  on  snowshoes  and  breaks  trail.  This  is 
laborious  work,  and  turns  are  taken  at  it. 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  IN  THE  FUR  LAND      137 

Driving  a  dog  team  is  an  art  in  itself.  Nothing  can 
be  more  ludicrous  than  the  attempts  of  a  tenderfoot  to 
drive  a  sledge.  The  dogs  are  naturally  perverse,  even 
under  expert  management,  and  when  they  realize  that 
the  driver  does  not  understand  his  task,  they  will  fight,  get 
tangled  up  in  the  traces,  and  do  any  number  of  other 
provoking  things,  usually  ending  up  by  overturning  the 
sledge.  The  following  passage,  from  Robinson's  The 
Great  Fur  Land,  pictures  some  of  the  trials  which  the 
traveler  by  dog-sledge  must  expect  to  experience: 

"  To  assist  his  own  locomotion,  the  traveler  ties  on 
his  largest  pair  of  snowshoes,  say  five  feet  long  and  fifteen 
inches  wide,  A  man  can  walk  much  faster  on  snowshoes, 
with  a  fair  track,  than  on  the  best  road  without  them; 
but  when  the  trail  is  frozen  perfectly  hard,  the  traveler 
casts  them  off,  and  runs  behind  the  dogs,  who  are  able 
to  gallop  at  great  speed  along  the  slippery  path;  and  in 
this  manner  the  most  extraordinary  journeys  have  been 
made.  With  a  crack  of  the  whip,  and  a  harsh  command 
to  the  dogs,  the  train  moves  off.  After  that,  a  perpetual 
shouting  and  cursing,  cracking  of  whips  and  howling  of 
dogs,  seem  necessary  to  keep  the  cavalcade  in  motion. 
And  it  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  when  one  comes  to 
consider  the  conduct  of  the  dogs  at  the  very  beginning 
of  the  journey. 

"  The  start  is  generally  made  at  a  very  early  hour  in 
the  morning;  for  the  traveler  invariably  accomplishes  a 
good  portion  of  his  day's  tramp  before  breakfast.  It  is, 
say,  two  long  hours  before  daybreak  when  the  dogs  are 
put  in  harness.  It  is, a  morning  of  bitter  cold;  a  faint  old 
moon  hangs  low  down  in  the  east ;  over  the  dreary  stretch 
of  snow-covered  plain  a  shadowy  Aurora  flickers  across 
the  stars;  it  is  all  as  wild  and  cheerless  a  spectacle  as 


138      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

the  eye  can  look  upon;  and  the  work  of  getting  the  un- 
willing dogs  in  their  harness  is  done  by  the  half-breeds 
in  no  very  amiable  mood.  In  the  haste  and  darkness 
of  the  time  but  scant  attention  is  given  to  getting  the 
cowering  brutes  into  their  proper  places  in  the  traces.  In 
consequence,  when  the  traveler  assumes  charge  of  his 
sledge,  an  ominous  tendency  to  growl  and  fight  tells  him 
that  something  is  wrong  in  his  train.  It  is  too  dark  to 
see  plainly,  but  a  touch  of  the  cold  nose  of  the  leader 
informs  him  that  the  right  dog  is  in  the  wrong  place.  It 
is  too  late,  however,  to  rectify  the  mistake;  the  half- 
breeds  are  already  off,  and  the  sound  of  their  dire 
anathemas  grows  fainter  and  fainter  upon  the  ear.  So 
the  whip  is  mercilessly  applied,  and,  amid  the  yells  of 
the  unhappy  brutes,  the  sledge  grinds  slowly  off  through 
the  frozen  snow. 

"  But  the  memory  of  that  mistake  rankles  in  the  breast 
of  the  foregoer;  and  just  when  a  steady  pace  is  attained, 
and  peace  seems  to  have  returned  to  the  train,  he  sud- 
denly countermarches  in  the  harness,  and  prostrates  the 
unoffending  steerdog  at  his  post.  The  attack,  too,  is 
made  with  so  much  suddenness  and  vigor  that  the  won- 
dering victim — who  is  perfectly  contented  with  the 
change,  having  thereby  won  the  easiest  place  in  the  train 
— instantly  capitulates,  and  '  turns  a  turtle  '  in  his  traces. 
The  trouble  might  end  here  but  for  the  fact  that  the 
unlooked-for  assault  is  generally  accompanied  by  a  flank 
movement  on  the  part  of  the  two  middle  dogs,  who,  when 
there  is  any  fighting  lying  around,  are  pretty  sure  to  have 
a  tooth  in  on  their  own  account.  And  having  no  par- 
ticular grudge  to  take  out,  but  only  mad  on  general 
principles,  they  are  equally  indifferent  in  attacking  the 
head  of  the  rear  dog  or  the  tail  of  the  one  in  front.    This 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  IN  THE  FUR  LAND      139 

condition  of  things  naturally  leads  to  fearful  confusion 
in  the  train;  they  jump  on  one  another;  they  tangle  their 
traces,  and  back-bands,  and  collar-straps,  into  inex- 
tricable knots  and  interlacings,  which  baffle  the  stiffened 
fingers  of  the  angry  traveler  to  unravel.  Frequently  they 
roll  themselves  into  one  huge  ball,  presenting  the  appear- 
ance of  a  hydra-headed  dog,  with  multitudinous  legs  and 
innumerable  tails.  The  rapid  application  of  the  whip 
only  seems  to  make  matters  worse — conveying  the  idea 
to  each  infuriated  dog  that  he  is  being  badly  bitten  by 
an  unknown  antagonist.  The  traveler,  having  tried 
everything  else,  and  with  patience  entirely  gone,  at  last 
in  sheer  despair,  but  unwittingly,  follows  the  example  of 
the  poet  of  Perth,  who  '  stoode  in  ta  middle  of  ta  roade 
and  swoore  at  lairge ';  having  a  faint  idea,  nevertheless, 
that  he  is  in  no  way  capable  of  doing  justice  to  the  sub- 
ject. The  effect,  however,  is  magical;  the  confused  train 
straightens  out  under  illimitable  imprecation,  with  a 
celerity  clearly  illustrating  the  manner  of  its  early  train- 
ing. As  for  the  bewildered  traveler,  he  has  unwittingly 
discovered  the  true  secret  of  dog-driving." 

When  curses  did  not  suffice,  blows  were  used,  and  there 
was  no  limit  to  the  cruelty  to  which  many  Indians  and 
half-breeds  and  even  some  white  men  would  go  when 
enraged  at  their  dogs.  The  pages  of  books  written  by 
travelers  in  the  Northwest  are  filled  with  passages 
describing  scenes  of  this  kind.  Witness  the  following 
passages  from  Colonel  Butler's  The  Great  Lone  Land: 

"  Coffee,  Tete  Noir,  Michinass,  and  another  whose 
name  I  forget,  underwent  repeated  whalings  at  the  hands 
of  my  driver,  a  half-breed  from  Edmonton  named  Frazer. 
Early  in  the  afternoon  the  head  of  Tete  Noir  was  reduced 
to  shapeless  pulp  from  tremendous  thrashings.   Michinass, 


I40     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

or  the  '  Spotted  One/  had  one  eye  wherewith  to  watch 
the  dreaded  driver,  and  Coffee  had  devoted  so  much 
strength  to  wild  lurches  and  sudden  springs  in  order  to 
dodge  the  descending  whip,  that  he  had  none  whatever 
to  bestow  upon  his  legitimate  toil  of  hauling  me.  At 
length,  so  useless  did  he  become,  that  he  had  to  be  taken 
out  altogether  from  the  harness  and  left  to  his  fate  on 
the  river.  '  And  this,'  I  said  to  myself,  '  is  dog-driving; 
this  inhuman  thrashing  and  varied  cursing,  this  frantic 
howling  of  dogs,  this  bitter,  terrible  cold  is  the  long- 
talked-of  mode  of  winter  travel ! '  " 

A  day  or  two  later  Colonel  Butler  "  witnessed  the  first 
example  of  a  very  common  occurrence  in  dog-driving — 
I  beheld  the  operation  known  as  '  sending  a  dog  to  Rome.' 
This  consists  simply  of  striking  him  over  the  head  with 
a  large  stick  until  he  falls  perfectly  senseless  to  the 
ground;  after  a  little  he  revives,  and,  with  memory  of  the 
awful  blows  that  took  his  consciousness  away  full  upon 
him,  he  pulls  frantically  at  his  load.  Oftentimes  a  dog 
is  '  sent  to  Rome '  because  he  will  not  allow  the  driver 
to  arrange  some  hitch  in  the  harness;  then,  while  he  is 
insensible,  the  necessary  alteration  is  carried  out,  and 
when  the  dog  recovers  he  receives  a  terrible  lash  of  the 
whip  to  set  him  going  again.  The  half-breeds  are  a  race 
easily  offended,  prone  to  sulk  if  reproved;  but  at  the  risk 
of  causing  delay  and  inconvenience  I  had  to  interfere  with 
a  peremptory  order  that  *  sending  to  Rome  '  should  be  at 
once  discontinued  in  my  trains.  The  wretched  *  Whiskey,' 
after  his  voyasre  to  the  Eternal  City,  appeared  quite  over- 
come with  what  he  had  there  seen,  and  continued  to 
stagger  along  the  trail,  making  feeble  efforts  to  keep 
straight.  This  tendency  to  wobble  caused  the  half-breeds 
to  indulge  in  funny  remarks,  one  of  them  calling  the 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  IN  THE  FUR  LAND      141 

track  a  '  drunken  trail.'  Finally,  '  Whiskey  '  was  aban- 
doned to  his  fate  ";  that  is,  he  was  left  to  die  of  starva- 
tion and  cold  on  the  blizzard- swept  plains.  However,  the 
next  night  the  poor  dog  managed  to  stagger  into  camp, 
"  for,  after  all,  there  was  one  fate  worse  than  being  '  sent 
to  Rome,'  and  that  was  being  left  to  starve." 

It  is  true  that  many  of  the  sledge  dogs  were  wild  and 
wolfish,  yet  there  were  few  that  would  not  respond  to 
kind  treatment.  Colonel  Butler  himself  made  the  ex- 
periment. "  From  the  camp  of  Chicag,"  says  he,  "  I  had 
driven  my  own  train  of  dogs,  with  Bear  the  sole  com- 
panion of  the  journey.  Nor  were  these  days  on  the  great 
lakes  [Winnipegoosis,  Winnipeg,  and  Manitoba]  by  any 
means  the  dullest  of  the  journey,  Cerf  Volant,  Tigre, 
Cariboo,  and  Muskeymote  gave  ample  occupation  to  their 
driver.  Long  before  Manitoba  was  reached  they  had 
learned  a  new  lesson — that  men  were  not  all  cruel  in  camp 
or  on  the  road.  It  is  true  that  in  the  learning  of  that 
lesson  some  little  difficulty  was  occasioned  by  the  sudden 
loosening  and  disruption  of  ideas  implanted  by  genera- 
tions of  cruelty  in  the  dog-mind  of  my  train.  It  is  true 
that  Muskeymote,  in  particular,  long  held  aloof  from 
offers  of  friendship,  and  then  suddenly  passed  from  the 
excess  of  caution  to  the  extreme  of  imprudence,  imagin- 
ing, doubtless,  that  the  millennium  had  at  length  arrived, 
and  that  dogs  were  henceforth  no  more  to  haul.  But 
Muskeymote  was  soon  set  right  upon  that  point,  and 
showed  no  inclination  to  repeat  his  mistake.  Then  there 
was  Cerf  Volant,  that  most  perfect  Esquimaux.  Cerf 
Volant  entered  readily  into  friendship,  upon  an  under- 
standing of  an  additional  half-fish  at  supper  every  eve- 
ning. No  alderman  ever  loved  his  turtle  better  than  did 
Cerf  Volant  love  his  whitefish;  but  I  rather  think  that 


142      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

the  whitefish  was  better  earned  than  the  turtle — however, 
we  will  let  that  be  a  matter  of  opinion.  Having  satisfied 
his  hunger,  which,  by-the-way,  is  a  luxury  only  allowed 
the  hauling-dog  once  a  day,  Cerf  Volant  would  generally 
establish  himself  in  close  proximity  to  my  feet,  frequently 
on  the  top  of  the  bag,  from  which  coign  of  vantage  he 
would  exchange  fierce  growls  with  any  dog  who  had 
the  temerity  to  approach  us." 

Cerf  Volant  was,  in  fact,  a  most  unusual  dog.'  He 
was  so  big  and  strong  that  he  won  from  his  admiring 
master  the  epithet  of  "The  Untiring."  He  not  only 
served  Butler  on  a  long  sledge  trip  in  the  Great  Lone 
Land  in  the  winter  of  1870-71,  but  the  next  year  he  ac- 
companied him  on  an  exhausting  journey  from  Red  River 
to  the  Pacific.  After  helping  for  thousands  of  miles  to 
pull  his  master's  sleigh,  he  reached  civilization  at  last  and 
made  the  yet  longer  journey  to  California  and  thence 
across  the  Continent  to  Boston. 

"The  Untiring  took  readily  to  civilization;  he  looked 
at  Shasta,  he  sailed  on  the  Columbia  River,  he  climbed 
the  dizzy  ledges  of  the  Yosemite,  he  gazed  at  the  Golden 
Gate  and  saw  the  sun  sink  beyond  the  blue  waves  of  the 
great  Salt  Lake,  but  none  of  these  scenes  seemed  to  effect 
him  in  the  slightest  degree.  He  journeyed  in  the  boot 
or  on  the  roof  of  a  stage-coach  for  more  than  eight  hun- 
dred miles;  he  was  weighed  once  as  extra  baggage,  and 
classified  and  charged  as  such;  he  conducted  himself  with 
all  possible  decorum  in  the  rooms  and  corridors  of  the 
grand  hotel  at  San  Francisco;  he  crossed  the  continent 
in  a  railway  carriage  to  Montreal  and  Boston,  as  though 
he  had  been  a  first-class  passenger  since  childhood;  he 
thought  no  more  of  the  reception-room  of  Brigham 
Young  in  Utah,  than  had  he  been  standing  on  a  snow- 


< 


METHODS  OF  TRAVEL  IN  THE  FUR  LAND      143 

drift  in  Athabasca  Lake;  he  was  duly  photographed  and 
petted  and  pampered,  but  he  took  it  all  as  a  matter  of 
course.  There  were,  however,  two  facts  in  civilization 
which  caused  him  unutterable  astonishment — a  brass 
band  and  a  butcher's  stall.  He  fled  from  the  one;  he 
howled  with  delight  before  the  other." 

Four  miles  an  hour  is  about  the  usual  pace  of  dogs 
dragging  a  well-loaded  sledge  over  brdinary  snow,  and 
forty  miles  is  not  unusual  in  a  day  of  ten  hours.  Sixty 
to  eighty  miles  with  a  light  sledge  upon  a  smooth  snow- 
crust  or  a  well-beaten  track  have  often  been  made.  One 
hears  in  the  North  of  even  more  extraordinary  journeys. 
For  example,  a  young  Scotch  half-breed  at  Fort  Garry, 
now  Winnipeg,  was  desirous  of  attending  the  wedding  of 
his  sister  at  that  place,  and  made  the  round  trip  from 
Fort  Garry  to  Pembina,  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles, 
with  the  mail  sledge,  drawn  by  a  single  team  of  dogs,  in 
fourteen  hours. 

When  parties  of  white  men  traveled  for  long  distances 
on  horseback,  the  baggage  was  carried  on  the  backs  of 
horses  taken  along  for  that  purpose.  Much  skill  was  re- 
quired in  tying  the  baggage  on  the  pack-saddles,  and 
various  styles  of  loops  and  knots  were  evolved,  such  as 
the  "squaw  hitch,"  the  "diamond  hitch,"  etc.  Travel 
with  a  pack-train  is  always  slow,  but  if  time  is  no  object, 
long  distances  can  be  covered  in  this  way,  for  the  horses 
can  pick  up  their  own  feed  at  the  camping  places,  and 
the  amount  of  supplies  that  can  be  carried  is  limited  only 
by  the  number  of  beasts  of  burden  taken.  Furthermore, 
a  pack-train  can  penetrate  into  rough  country  where  it 
would  be  impossible  to  take  a  wagon. 

In  the  Red  River  region  the  half-breeds  made  large  use 
of  a  two-wheeled  cart  that  was  drawn  by  a  horse  or  ox. 


144     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Henry,  in  his  Journal,  describes  the  making  of  one  of 
these,  perhaps  the  first  ever  built.  Ordinarily  no  iron 
whatever  was  used  in  their  manufacture.  They  consisted 
of  a  sort  of  box  mounted  on  two  immense,  wooden  wheels, 
and  had  rough  shafts  in  front.  As  the  axles  were  rarely 
or  never  greased,  the  protesting  shrieks  of  the  carts  could 
be  heard  on  still  days  for  miles.  The  half-breeds  ex- 
plained their  not  using  grease  by  saying  they  did  not 
wish  to  steal  up  silently  upon  anybody. 

The  Plains  Indians  did  much  of  their  traveling  with 
horses.  They,  too,  evolved  a  rude  sort  of  conveyance 
known  by  the  French  as  a  travois,  but  variously  called 
travail,  travaille,  traverse,  and  travee.  This  consisted  of 
two  poles,  one  end  of  each  of  which  was  lashed  to  the 
sides  of  a  horse,  while  the  opposite  ends  dragged  on  the 
ground.  Cross-pieces  were  lashed  between  the  poles,  and 
hides  were  stretched  over  these  cross-pieces  and  between 
the  poles  in  such  a  way  as  to  form  a  sort  of  litter  in 
which  persons  could  ride  or  goods  be  placed.  At  the  rear 
of  any  band  of  Indians  on  the  march  there  was  likely  to 
be  a  number  of  these  travailles,  drawn  usually  by  old, 
broken-down  ponies.  In  the  same  travois  the  spectator 
might  see  an  aged  squaw,  two  or  three  beady-eyed  chil- 
dren not  yet  old  enough  to  bestride  a  pony,  and  perhaps 
a  bag  of  pemmican. 


CHAPTER  X 

HOW  THE  RED  RIVER  HALF-BREEDS  HUNTED 
THE   BUFFALOES 

The  traders  and  settlers  in  the  region  of  the  Red  River 
of  the  North  early  discovered,  as  we  have  seen  in  our 
account  of  Alexander  Henry,  that  potatoes  and  other  agri- 
cultural products  could  be  grown  in  great  profusion. 
Selkirk's  Scotch  colonists,  of  whom  more  will  be  said 
hereafter,  and  to  a  much  smaller  extent  the  French 
Canadian  settlers  also  cultivated  the  soil.  But  farming 
is  a  prosaic  occupation;  even  the  raising  of  cattle  seems 
somewhat  dull  when  on  the  wide  plains  not  far  away 
roam  tens  of  thousands  of  animals  of  the  bovine  tribe 
that  may  be  had  for  the  killing.  It  was  only  human 
nature,  therefore,  that  the  European  settlers  and  still 
more  their  half-breed  descendants  should  revert  in  large 
measure  to  primitive  methods  of  obtaining  a  livelihood. 
Out  of  this  situation  there  developed  what  H.  M.  Robin- 
son in  his  fascinating  book,  The  Great  Fur  Land,  calls 
'"■  the  most  perfectly-organized,  effective,  and  picturesque 
periodically-recurring  hunting-excursions  known  to  any 
nomadic  peoples."  From  his  graphic  pages  the  material 
for  this  chapter  is  largely  taken. 

Two  hunts  were  made  a  year,  one  beginning  about  the 
first  of  June,  the  second  about  the  end  of  August.  The 
latter,  the  great  fall  hunt,  is  the  one  we  shall  describe. 

Some  days  before  the  appointed  time  the  hunters  and 
their  families  began  to  gather  at  the  rendezvous,  which 

145 


146     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

had  previously  been  selected.  A  favorite  gathering  place 
was  Pembina  Mountain,  which  stands  in  the  nortlieast 
corner  of  what  is  now  North  Dako^^^a.  Thither  streamed 
along  well-known  trails  long  trains  of  creaking  Red 
River  carts,  drawn  by  horses  or  oxen;  the  men,  for  the 
most  part  rode  on  horseback,  while  the  carts  were  filled 
with  women  and  black-eyed  children;  and  many  un- 
saddled horses,  some  of  them  well-trained  buffalo  run- 
ners, were  led  behind  the  carts  or  were  driven  along  the 
trail.  Some  days  before  the  appointed  time  the  plain 
on  the  banks  of  the  stream  that  runs  by  Pembina  Moun- 
tain would  be  "  covered  with  a  motley  grouping  of  carts, 
canvas  tents,  smoke-brown  leather  tepees,  and,  in  lieu 
of  other  shelter,  small  squares  of  cotton  or  raw-hide 
stretched  from  cart  to  cart,  or  over  a  rough  framework 
of  poles.  For  miles  around  the  prairie  is  alive  with 
ponies,  hoppled,  tied  to  lariat  pins,  or  dragging  about 
poles  as  a  preventive  against  straying.  Mingled  with  this 
kicking,  neighing  herd  wander  hundreds  of  oxen — patient, 
lowing  kine,  the  youthful  vivacity  of  which  has  given 
place  to  middle-aged  steadiness.  Through  this  compact 
mass  of  animal  life  gallop  with  a  wild  scurry,  from  time 
to  time,  half-nude  boys,  breaking  a  narrow  pathway  in 
search  of  some  needed  ox  or  pony,  or  hurrying  the  whole 
■struggling  mass  riverward. 

"  In  the  camp  the  sole  occupation  of  the  day  is  the 
pursuit  of  pleasure.  From  every  tent  and  shelter  comes 
the  sound  of  laughter;  every  camp-fire  furnishes  its  quota 
of  jest  and  song.  Here  a  small  but  excited  circle,  gath- 
ered under  the  shade  of  a  cart,  are  deeply  engaged  in 
gambling  by  what  is  known  as  the  '  moccasin  game.'  In 
an  empty  moccasin  are  placed  sundry  buttons  and  bul- 
lets, which,  being  shaken  up,  involve  the  guessing  of  the 


HUNTING  THE  BUFFALOES  147 

number  in  the  shoe.  The  ground  is  covered  with  guns, 
capotes,  and  shirts,  the  volatile  half-breed  often  stripping 
the  clothing  from  his  back  to  satisfy  his  passion  for  play, 
or  staking  his  last  horse  and  cart.  There  another  like- 
minded  party  are  gambling  with  cards,  the  stakes  being 
a  medley  of  everything  portable  owned  by  the  players. 
In  many  tents  rum  is  holding  orgy,  and  the  clinking  of 
cups,  boisterous  laughter  and  song,  tell  of  the  direst 
enemy  of  the  hunter.  In  another  quarter  feasting  is  the 
order  of  the  day,  and  the  small  stock  of  provisions,  de- 
signed to  supply  the  family  until  the  buffalo  were 
reached,  is  being  devoured  at  a  sitting.  The  host  knows 
this;  but,  then,  he  selects  a  feast  and  its  consequent 
famine.  Yonder  tawny  Pyramus  is  making  love  to  dusky 
Thisbe  after  the  most  approved  fashion.  They  seem  in- 
different to  the  exposure  of  the  camp,  and  conduct  their 
wooing  as  if  no  curious  eyes  were  upon  them.  About 
the  many  camp-fires  stand,  or  crouch,  the  wives  of  the 
hunters,  busily  engaged  in  culinary  operations,  or  gossip- 
ing with  neighbors,  while  their  numerous  scantily- 
attired  offspring  play  about  in  the  dust  and  dirt  with 
wolfish-looking  dogs.  The  baby  of  the  family,  fastened 
to  a  board,  leans  against  a  cart-wheel,  doubtless  revolv- 
ing in  its  infantile  mind  those  subtile  questions  pertinent 
to  babyhood." 

Elsewhere  the  aged  leaders  of  the  hunt  might  be  seen 
congregated.  Perched  on  the  wheel  of  a  cart  farther  on 
some  "  long-haired  Paganini "  would  be  "  drawing  rude 
melodies  from  a  fractured  violin,"  while  about  would  be 
congregated  a  crowd  of  hearers,  applauding  each  perform- 
ance or  suggesting  some  favorite  tune,  and  now  and  then 
engaging  in  "  an  improvised  break-down,  or  executing  a 
pas  seul  the  very  embodiment  of  caricature."    "  Above  all 


148     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

rises  the  clamor  of  many  tongues,  speaking  many  lan- 
guages, the  neighing  of  horses,  the  lowing  of  kine,  the 
barking  of  hundreds  of  dogs,  and  the  shouts  and  yells 
of  fresh  arrivals,  as  they  pour  hourly  in  to  swell  the  num- 
bers of  the  already  vast  encampment." 

In  the  afternoon,  if  the  -weather  was  favorable,  most 
of  the  people  in  the  camp  would  gather  on  some  level 
stretch  of  prairie  outside,  where  a  straightaway  race 
course  had  been  laid  off.  Well-known  leaders  of  the  hunt 
would  be  stationed  at  either  end,  and  the  racing  would 
begin.  "  Betting  runs  high,  the  wagers  of  the  principals 
being  generally  horse  against  horse,  those  of  outsiders 
ranging  from  valuable  horses  down  through  carts  and 
oxen  to  the  clothing  worn  at  the  moment.  All  is  excite- 
ment, and  as  the  contestants  dash  forward,  with  that  pe- 
culiar plunging  of  the  heels  into  the  flanks  of  the  horses 
at  every  jump,  affected  by  the  plains-hunter,  it  breaks 
forth  in  cheers  and  gesticulations  of  encouragement  to  the 
favorite.  All  points  of  disagreement  are  quickly  settled 
by  the  dictum  of  the  umpires,  and  the  loser  quietly  strips 
saddle  and  bridle  from  his  much-prized  animal,  and  con- 
soles himself  for  the  loss  in  copious  draughts  of 
rum.   .    .    . 

"  Toward  night  the  huge  camp  becomes  again  resonant 
with  a  more  intense  babel  of  sounds.  The  lucky  winner 
on  the  race-course  parades  his  gains,  and  depicts  in 
graphic  pantomime  his  share  in  the  sports;  while  the  loser 
bewails  his  losses  in  maudlin  tones,  or  arranges  the  terms 
of  a  new  race  for  the  morrow.  The  betting  of  the  after- 
noon is  succeeded  by  the  deeper  gambling  of  the  evening; 
and  the  sounds  of  shuffling  cards,  the  clinking  of  the 
buttons  and  bullets  of  the  moccasin-game,  and  the  ex- 
clamations of  triumph  and  despair  of  winner  and  loser, 


HUNTING  THE  BUFFALOES  149 

are  everywhere  heard.  Rum  flows  freely;  for  each  hunter 
brings  a  supply  to  tide  him  over  the  grand  encampment, 
and  start  him  fairly  on  his  journey.  As  the  night  ad- 
vances, the  camp  grows  more  and  more  boisterous,  the 
confusion  worse  confounded.  The  women  disappear  from 
the  camp-fires,  and  betake  themselves  to  tents  out  of 
harm's  way.  Drunken  men  reel  about  the  flaming  fires; 
wild  yells  fill  the  still  air;  quarrels  are  engendered;  fierce 
invectives  in  many  tongues  roll  from  angry  lips,  and  the 
saturnalia  becomes  general.  The  camp-fires  light  up  the 
strange  scene  with  a  lurid  glare,  and  tent,  cart,  and  awn- 
ing, cast  fantastic  shadows  over  all.  The  orgy  continues 
late  in  the  night,  and,  when  the  fires  flicker  and  die  out, 
their  last  feeble  glow  reveals  shadowy  forms  stretched 
promiscuously  about,  sleeping  the  sleep  of  drunkenness." 

On  the  day  before  setting  out  all  the  men  would  meet 
together  and  select  a  chief,  counselors,  captains,  and 
guides.  A  code  of  rules  would  be  drawn  up  by  the  chief 
and  counselors.  These  rules  usually  prohibited  any  one 
from  lagging  behind  or  leaving  the  main  body  and  in- 
variably forbade  any  person  or  party  from  running 
buffalo  before  the  general  order  was  given  under  which 
all  could  participate.  This  last  rule  was  partly  intended 
to  prevent  the  buffaloes  from  being  frightened  out  of  the 
country  by  the  precipitate  action  of  a  few  individuals. 

On  the  morning  of  the  appointed  day  the  cavalcade 
of  carts  and  horsemen,  miles  long,  set  out  southwestward 
over  the  rolling  prairie  toward  the  hunting  grounds. 
"  Along  the  line  of  march  are  scattered  the  four  cap- 
tains of  the  guard,  who,  with  their  men,  keep  order  in 
the  line.  Here  rides  on  a  sleek  runner  the  average  hunter, 
in  corduroy  and  capote,  bronzed,  sparsely  bearded, 
volatile,  and  given  to  much  gesticulation ;  next,  an  Indian, 


I50     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

pure  and  simple,  crouched  upon  the  back  of  his  shaggy, 
unkempt  pony,  without  saddle,  and  using  a  single  cord 
as  bridle — a  blanketed,  hatless,  '  grave  and  reverend 
seignior,'  speaking  but  seldom,  and  then  only  in  mono- 
syllables; then  a  sandy-haired  and  canny  Scot,  clad  in 
homespun,  and  with  keen  gray  eyes  wide  open  for  the 
main  chance,  eager  for  trade,  but  reckless  and  daring  as 
any  hunter  of  them  all,  bestriding  a  large-boned,  well- 
accoutred  animal,  and  riding  it  like  a  heavy  dragoon; 
here,  again,  a  pink-cheeked  sprig  of  English  nobility, 
doing  the  hunt  from  curiosity,  and  carefully  watched  over 
by  a  numerous  retinue  of  servants  and  retainers.  He 
has  in  his  outfit  all  the  latest  patterns  of  arms,  the  most 
comprehensive  camp-chests,  and  impedimenta  enough  for 
a  full  company  of  plain-hunters.  From  every  covered 
cart  in  the  long  train  peer  the  dusky  faces  of  Phyllis  and 
Thisbe,  sometimes  chatting  gaily  with  the  tawny  cavaliers 
riding  alongside;  again  engaged  in  quieting  the  demon- 
strations of  a  too  lively  progeny.  .  .  .  Every^vhere  there 
is  a  glint  of  polished  gun-barrels,  a  floating  of  parti- 
colored sashes,  a  reckless  careering  to  and  fro,  a  wild 
dash  and  scurry,  a  waving  of  blankets,  shouts,  dust,  noise, 
and  confusion." 

As  the  days  pass  the  cavalcade  may  come  upon  small 
bands  of  buffalo  feeding,  but  the  rule  against  firing  at 
them  is  strictly  enforced.  The  object  is  to  find  the  main 
herds,  so  that  all  may  participate  with  equal  chances 
and  a  great  slaughter  be  accomplished.  However,  the 
longing  for  fresh  meat  occasionally  proves  too  strong 
for  hungry  half-breeds,  and  a  curious  plan  that  does  not 
infringe  the  rules  is  resorted  to.  Two  well  mounted 
hunters  take  a  long  rawhide  rope,  isolate  a  fat  cow  from 
the  herd,  entangle  her  legs  in  the  rope  so  that  she  falls  to 


HUNTING  THE  BUFFALOES  151 

the  ground,  and  then  they  dispatch  her  with  knives. 
The  meat  thus  obtained  furnishes  variety  and  may  also 
reheve  actual  hunger,  for  generally  some  of  the  hunters 
start  on  the  trip  without  a  sufficient  supply  of  food. 

Meanwhile,  the  scouts  have  been  scouring  the  country 
to  right  and  left  and  ahead  in  search  of  the  main  herds. 
A  day  comes  when  a  lucky  scout  returns  with  word  that 
he  has  discovered  one  of  them.  The  cavalcade  turns  in 
the  direction  he  indicates,  being  careful  to  keep  to  wind- 
ward of  the  herd,  and  camp  is  made  in  some  depression 
of  the  prairie  not  too  close  to  the  quarry.  Guns  are 
cleaned  and  examined,  powder-flasks  and  bullet-pouches 
filled,  saddles  and  bridles  overhauled,  and  the  best  buffalo- 
runners  are  made  ready.  These  valuable  animals  have 
been  carefully  cared  for  to  be  in  readiness  for  the  next 
day. 

Before  break  of  day  next  morning  the  hunters  mount 
and  ride  toward  the  herd.  Advantage  is  taken  of  any 
bits  of  rising  ground  to  approach  as  closely  as  possible. 
Finally  when  all  is  ready  the  chief  of  the  hunt  shouts, 
"  Allez!  allez!  "  A  thousand  reckless  riders  dash  for- 
ward at  a  wild  gallop.  The  buffaloes  break  away  at  a 
speed  that  is  surprisingly  swift  for  so  cumbersome  a 
beast,  but  the  hunters  are  soon  at  the  outskirts  of  the 
herd.  Guns  flash  and  roar,  the  wild  yells  of  the  eager 
hunters  mingle  with  the  hoarse  bellows  of  wounded  bulls, 
the  dust  rises  in  vast  clouds,  and  the  chase  sweeps  rapidly 
over  the  rolling  prairie,  leaving  behind  it  many  dead  or 
mortally  wounded  buffaloes.  Here,  too,  a  pony  has  put 
his  foot  in  a  prairie  dog's  hole  and  has  fallen,  pitching 
his  rider  over  his  head.  The  half-breed  has  risen  and 
while  rubbing  his  own  bruises  contemplates  ruefully  his 
pony's  broken  leg. 


152      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

In  shooting  it  is  the  custom  to  ride  close  up  to  a 
buffalo,  place  the  muzzle  of  the  gun  almost  against  his 
hide,  and  fire  without  taking  much  aim.  A  shot  in  the 
short  ribs  ranging  forward  is  a  favorite  one,  and,  if 
well  placed,  will  soon  bring  the  animal  to  the  ground. 
The  backbone  is  an  even  more  deadly  spot  but  is  harder 
to  hit.  For  the  most  part  the  hunters  are  using  smooth- 
bore, flintlock  guns.  When  they  wish  to  reload  they  drop 
a  handful  of  powder  in  the  muzzle,  take  a  bullet  out  of 
their  mouths,  and  let  it  fall  upon  the  powder;  no  patching 
is  used,  and  the  bullets  are  made  small  enough  readily  to 
roll  in  or  out.  A  tap  of  the  butt  against  the  saddle  will 
usually  prime  the  weapon,  and  it  is  ready  for  use.  Care 
must  then  be  exercised  to  keep  the  muzzle  pointing  up 
else  the  bullet  will  roll  out,  and  the  muzzle  must  be  de- 
pressed only  an  instant  in  taking  aim.  Occasionally  the 
bullets  roll  nearly  to  the  muzzle  and  a  bursted  gun  re- 
sults when  the  weapon  is  fired,  but  this  is  not  likely  to 
take  place  unless  the  powder  charge  is  too  heavy.  In 
every  great  hunt  some  man  is  more  or  less  injured  by 
such  an  explosion,  and  there  are  dozens  of  men  who  have 
lost  fingers  or  thumbs  or  even  a  hand  in  this  way. 

Behind  the  hunters  follow  the  women  and  children  with 
the  heavy  wooden  carts,  skinning  and  cutting  up  the 
game.  The  men,  too,  presently  return  from  chasing  the 
herd  and  help  in  the  work.  In  a  surprisingly  short  time 
the  plain  is  strewn  with  skeletons  stripped  of  their  flesh. 
Some  of  the  best  of  the  meat  is  taken  home  in  its  natural 
state,  for  the  weather  is  now  so  cool  that  the  meat  will 
keep  indefinitely.  Much  of  it^  however,  is  dried  in  the 
sun  or  over  fires,  and  a  great  deal  is  made  into  pemmican. 

In  making  pemmican  the  meat  is  first  cut  into  thin 
slices  and  dried.     It  is  then  pounded  into  shreds  with 


HUNTING  THE  BUFFALOES  153 

flails  or  between  two  stones.  Bags  of  buffalo  hide,  with 
the  hair  outside,  have  been  prepared,  and  each  of  these 
is  half  filled  with  the  pounded  meat.  The  tallow  of  the 
animals  has  meanwhile  been  boiled  in  huge  kettles,  and 
this  is  poured,  while  still  hot,  into  the  bags.  The  con- 
tents are  then  thoroughly  mixed,  after  which  more  fat  is 
poured  on  top.  The  bags  are  then  sewed  up,  and  the 
contents  allowed  to  cool.  Such  a  bag  will  weigh  about  a 
hundred  pounds.  It  is  highly  nutritious  and  will  keep 
indefinitely  if  it  is  not  allowed  to  become  damp.  It  is 
the  main  traveling  provision  throughout  the  great  Fur 
Land,  and  it  is  always  in  demand  at  the  Hudson's  Bay 
posts. 

The  night  following  the  hunt  is  spent  in  feasting.  In- 
credible are  the  quantities  of  tongues,  savory  ribs,  and 
melting  hump  consumed.  If  wood  is  abundant,  the  fires 
glare  against  the  darkness,  and  the  plains  resound  with 
sounds  of  merriment. 

Sometimes  enough  buffaloes  are  killed  in  a  single  hunt 
to  answer  all  purposes.  At  all  events  a  day  comes  when 
the  hunting  party  turns  homeward,  the  wooden  carts 
creaking  beneath  the  weight  of  meat  and  robes. 

For  more  than  half  a  century  these  great  hunts  of 
the  Red  River  half-breeds  continued.  Many  of  the  buf- 
falo robes  and  much  of  the  pemmican  used  by  the  great 
fur  company  were  thus  obtained.  Each  year  thousands 
of  buffaloes  were  slain,  yet  little  impression  was  made 
upon  the  teeming  millions.  It  was  not  until  railways  to 
the  Pacific  were  built  across  the  plains  that  the  ravages 
of  skin  hunters  finally  brought  the  buffaloes  to  virtual 
extinction. 

When  that  time  came,  the  great  hunts  ceased,  of 
course.    Some  of  the  descendants  of  the  half-breeds  who 


154      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

engaged  in  them  still  live  upon  the  banks  of  the  Red 
River  and  the  Assiniboine.  Others  are  rivermen,  trap- 
pers, lumbermen,  and  one  meets  them  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  great  Northwest.  Wherever  they  may  be 
they  still  retain  their  love  for  streams  and  lakes  and  the 
forest  primeval. 


CHAPTER  XI 

FURTHER   SIDELIGHTS   ON   INDIAN   LIFE 

The  various  Indian  tribes  were  almost  constantly  en- 
gaged in  war  with  each  other.  Even  in  times  of  so-called 
"  peace  "  hostilities  might  flare  up  at  any  moment.  In 
times  of  war  watch  had  to  be  constantly  kept  against 
enemies,  and  scouts  were  always  on  the  lookout  for 
prowling  hostile  bands.  The  main  objects  in  warfare 
were  to  steal  horses,  take  scalps,  or  get  a  wife.  Horses 
were  valuable,  and  besides  it  was  much  more  exciting  and 
honorable  to  steal  a  horse  than  to  rear  or  buy  it.  As 
for  scalps,  among  some  tribes  a  young  fellow  was  hardly 
esteemed  a  warrior  until  he  had  torn  a  gory  trophy  from 
the  head  of  an  enemy.  To  obtain  such  a  trophy  the 
average  Indian  would  murder  a  woman  or  a  child  as  re- 
morselessly as  he  would  a  man.  If  a  young  and  pretty 
squaw  fell  into  his  hands,  however,  he  would  be  likely, 
if  it  were  possible,  to  carry  her  home  with  him  as  a  con- 
cubine or  wife. 

After  all,  however,  in  their  fondness  for  war  the  In- 
dians did  not  differ  greatly  from  more  "  civilized  "  peo- 
ples. A  missionary  once  remonstrated  with  an  assem- 
blage of  Crees  because  of  their  unceasing  warfare  against 
their  red  neighbors. 

"  My  friend,  what  you  say  is  good,"  replied  a  Cree 
chieftain;  "but  look,  you  are  a  white  man  and  Chris- 
tian, we  are  red  men  and  worship  the  Manitou;  but  what 
is  the  news  we  hear  from  the  traders  and  the  blackrobes? 

155 


156     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Is  it  not  always  the  news  of  war?  The  Kitchi-Mokans 
(i.e.  the  Americans)  are  on  the  war-path  against  their 
brethren  of  the  South,  the  English  are  fighting  some  tribes 
far  away  over  the  big  lake;  the  French,  and  all  the  other 
tribes,  are  fighting  too!  My  brother,  it  is  news  of  war, 
always  news  of  war!  and  we — we  go  on  the  war-path  in 
small  numbers.  We  stop  when  we  kill  a  few  of  our 
enemies  and  take  a  few  scalps;  but  your  nations  go  to 
war  in  countless  thousands,  and  we  hear  of  more  of  your 
braves  killed  in  one  battle  than  all  our  tribe  numbers 
together.  So,  my  brother,  do  not  say  to  us  that  it  is 
wrong  to  go  on  the  war-path,  for  what  is  the  right  of  the 
white  man  cannot  be  wrong  in  his  red  brother.  I  have 
done!  " 

The  Rocky  Mountain  House,  which  stood  in  a  thick 
pine  forest  on  the  bank  of  the  northern  branch  of  the 
Saskatchewan  in  the  eastern  foothills  of  the  Rockies,  was 
a  post  where  trading  was  likely  to  be  dangerous.  The 
tribes  that  resorted  thither  were  the  Blackfeet,  Crees, 
Sarcees,  and  Mountain  Assiniboines,  and  they  were  not 
only  often  fighting  each  other  but  not  infrequently  they 
would  attack  the  white  traders.  Every  possible  device 
of  palisades,  bars,  locks,  sliding-doors,  and  loopholes  for 
firing  down  upon  the  Indians  was  employed.  The  follow- 
ing picture  of  trading  at  this  post  is  taken  from  Robin- 
son's The  Great  Fur  Land: 

*'  WTien  the  Blackfeet  have  accumulated  a  sufficient 
number  of  peltries  to  warrant  a  visit  to  the  Rocky-Moun- 
tain House,  two  or  three  envoys,  or  forerunners,  are 
chosen,  and  are  sent  in  advance  of  the  main  body,  by  a 
week  or  more,  to  announce  their  approach  and  notify 
the  officers  in  charge  of  the  quantity  of  provisions,  pel- 
tries, robes,  horses,  etc.,  which  they  will  have  to  dispose 


FURTHER  SIDELIGHTS  ON  INDIAN  LIFE      157 

of;  and  also  to  ascertain  the  whereabouts  of  their  heredi- 
tary enemies,  the  Crees  and  Mountain  Assiniboines.  The 
envoys  prepare  for  state  visits  of  this  nature  by  an  as- 
sumption of  their  gaudiest  apparel,  and  a  more  than 
usual  intensity  of  paint;  scarlet  leggings  and  blankets; 
abundance  of  ribbons  in  the  cap,  if  any  be  worn,  or 
the  head-band  trimmed  with  beads  and  porcupine  quills, 
while  the  bulk  of  the  cap  is  made  of  the  plumage  of 
birds;  again,  a  single  feather  from  the  wing  of  an  eagle 
or  white-bird,  fastened  in  the  scalp-lock,  or  the  hair 
plaited  in  a  long  cue  behind,  and  two  shorter  ones  hang- 
ing down  on  each  side  in  front,  each  bound  with  coils 
of  bright  brass  wire;  round  the  eyes  a  halo  of  bright  ver- 
milion, a  streak  down  the  nose,  a  patch  on  each  cheek, 
and  a  circle  round  the  mouth  of  the  same  color,  consti- 
tute the  effective  head-gear  of  the  advance-agents.  The 
remainder  of  the  costume  is  modified  by  climate  and 
seasons.  In  the  summer  they  are  almost  naked,  seldom 
wearing  more  than  the  azain,  or  loin-cloth.  In  the  colder 
months  they  wear  clothing  made  of  the  skins  of  wild 
animals,  dressed,  or  with  the  fur  on.   .    .    . 

"  Upon  arriving  at  the  post,  the  envoys  are  received 
and  handsomely  entertained  by  the  officer  in  charge,  who 
makes  them  presents  according  to  their  rank,  and  in  pro- 
portion to  the  anticipated  value  of  the  trade.  They  are 
feasted,  smoked,  and,  upon  occasion,  wined  to  a  consid- 
erable extent.   .    .    . 

"  Within  the  fort  a  searching  examination  is  made  of 
the  efficient  workings  of  all  bolts,  locks,  gratings,  etc., 
and  of  the  closing  of  all  means  of  communication  between 
the  Indian  room — a  large  apartment  in  which  the  Black- 
feet  assemble  previous  to  being  admitted  into  the  trading- 
store — and  the  rest  of  the  buildings;   guns  are  newly 


158     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

cleaned,  reloaded,  and  placed,  together  with  abundant 
ammunition,  by  the  numerous  loop-holes  in  the  lofts 
above  the  trading  and  Indian  room.  From  the  shelves 
of  the  former  are  taken  most  of  the  blankets,  colored 
cloths,  guns,  ammunition,  ribbons,  bright  handkerchiefs, 
beads,  etc.,  the  staple  commodities  of  the  Indian  trade, 
with  a  view  of  decreasing  the  excitement  under  which  the 
red-man  always  labors  when  brought  into  immediate 
jutaxposition  with  so  much  bravery — an  excitement 
which  renders  him  oblivious  to  furnishing  an  equivalent 
in  exchange,  and  tends  to  foster  his  habits  of  forcible 
seizure.  Preparations  are  also  made  within  the  stockade 
for  the  reception  of  the  ponies  to  be  purchased,  and  their 
safe-keeping  afterward,  for  the  Blackfoot's  fine  sense  of 
humor  frequently  leads  him  to  ride  away  an  animal  he 
has  just  sold,  by  way  of  practical  joke  upon  the  owner." 
The  Indian  room  and  the  trading  room  were  connected 
by  a  narrow  passage,  each  end  of  which  was  closed  by 
a  heavy  door.  Only  two  Indians  were  admitted  into  the 
trading  room  at  a  time,  and  this  was  done  with  great 
care.  The  passage  door  into  the  Indian  room  was  opened 
and  two  braves  were  permitted  to  pass  through,  after 
which  this  door  was  closed  and  locked;  the  other  door 
was  then  opened,  and  the  Indians  were  permitted  to  pass 
into  the  trading  room.  Thus  one  door  was  always  kept 
shut,  so  that  there  could  be  no  sudden  rush  into  the 
trading  room.  Even  that  room  itself  was  divided  into 
two  parts:  in  one  were  the  traders  and  their  goods,  in  the 
other  the  Indians,  and  there  was  only  a  square  aperture 
between,  and  way  through  this  was  barred  by  a  grating 
which  left  openings  sufficiently  large  for  the  passage  of  a 
blanket  or  a  robe.  This  last  precaution  was  partly  to 
prevent  the  Indians  from  handling  and  soiling  the  goods, 


FURTHER  SIDELIGHTS  ON  INDIAN  LIFE      159 

partly  to  prevent  them,  in  case  of  disagreement,  from 
attempting  to  kill  the  traders.  If,  in  spite  of  all  these 
precautions,  the  Indians  either  in  the  trading  room  or 
Indian  room  grew  so  violent  as  to  be  really  dangerous, 
the  traders  could  fire  down  upon  them  from  loopholes 
in  the  ceiling.    Robinson  continues: 

"  A  somewhat  amusing  illustration  of  the  universal 
passion  for  dress,  which  forms  a  distinguishing  charac- 
teristic of  the  Blackfeet,  equally  with  other  Indians, 
occurs  in  these  trades.  The  fashionable  costume  of  the 
red-man  is  not  generally  regulated  by  the  variable  moods 
of  the  mercurial  Parisian;  indeed  it  has  undergone  but 
little  change  since  the  memory  of  men.  Certain  interest- 
ing specimens  of  the  race  are  said  to  have  been  seen 
attired  in  even  less  than  the  vaunted  Mexican  costume — 
a  shirt-collar  and  a  pair  of  spurs.  We  ourselves  remem- 
ber to  have  seen  one  chastely  appareled  in  a  stove-pipe 
hat.  But  it  frequently  occurs,  during  the  trades,  that 
some  doughty  chieftain  elects  to  appear  in  more  than 
regal  magnificence  before  his  tribe;  and  for  his  benefit, 
and  those  of  similar  tastes,  the  Company  annually  im- 
port certain  ancient  costumes  prevalent  in  England  some 
half-century  since.  The  tall,  stove-pipe  hat,  with  round 
narrow  brim;  the  snuff-brown  or  bright-blue  coat,  with 
high  collar,  climbing  up  over  the  neck,  the  sleeves  tightly 
fitting,  the  waist  narrow — this  is  the  Blackfeet's  ideal  of 
perfection  in  dress,  and  the  brave  who  can  array  himself 
in  this  antique  garb  struts  out  from  the  fori  the  envy 
and  admiration  of  all  beholders.  Often  the  high  hat  is 
ornamented  with  a  decayed  ostrich-plume,  drooping  like 
the  shadow  of  a  great  sorrow,  which  has  figured  in  the 
turban  of  some  dowager  of  the  British  Isles  long  years 
since.    While  the  presence  of  trousers  is  considered  by 


i6o     TRATLMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

no  means  essential  to  the  perfect  finish  of  the  costume, 
the  addition  of  a  narrow  band  of  gold  lace  about  the  coat 
is  regarded  as  imparting  an  air  of  tone  to  the  general 
effect  not  to  be  obtained  in  any  other  way.  For  such  a 
costume  the  Blackfeet  brave  will  barter  his  deer-skin, 
beaded,  quilled,  and  ornamented  with  the  raven  locks  of 
his  enemies;  his  head-band  of  beautiful  feathers  and 
shells;  and  the  soft-tanned  and  flowing  robe  of  buffalo- 
skin — a  dress  which  adds  a  kingly  dignity  to  his  athletic 
form  for  one  which  Pantaloon  would  scorn  to  wear. 
Fortunately,  the  new  dress  does  not  long  survive.  Little 
by  little  it  is  found  unsuited  to  the  wild  life  which  its 
owner  leads,  and,  although  never  losing  the  originally 
high  estimate  placed  upon  it,  is  discarded  at  length  by 
reason  of  the  many  inconveniences  arising  from  running 
buffalo  in  a  plug-hat  and  fighting  in  a  swallow-tail  coat 
against  the  Crees.   .    .    . 

"  A  liquor  trade  generally  began  with  a  present  of  fire- 
water all  round.  Then  business  went  on  apace.  After 
an  Indian  had  taken  his  first  drink,  it  was  a  matter  of 
little  difficulty  to  obtain  all  he  had  in  exchange  for  spirits. 
Horses,  robes,  tents,  provisions — all  would  be  proffered 
for  one  more  dram  of  the  beloved  poison.  As  the  trade 
advanced  it  degenerated  into  a  complete  orgy.  Nothing 
could  exceed  the  excitement  inside  the  room,  except  it 
was  the  excitement  outside — for  only  a  limited  number 
of  the  thirsty  crowd  could  obtain  entrance  at  a  time. 
There  the  anxious  braves  could  only  learn  by  hearsay 
what  was  going  on  within.  Now  and  then  a  brave,  with 
an  amount  of  self-abnegation  worthy  of  a  better  cause, 
would  issue  from  the  fort,  with  his  cheeks  distended  and 
his  mouth  full  of  rum,  and  going  along  the  ranks  of  his 
friends  he  would  squirt  a  little  of  the  liquor  into  the  open 


^ 

fc^il 

^ 

^^  ""^ -""^^^^^l 

Clh 


FURTHER  SIDELIGHTS  ON  INDIAN  LIFE      i6i 

mouths  of  his  less  fortunate  brethren.  There  were  times, 
however,  when  matters  did  not  go  on  so  peaceably. 
Knives  were  wont  to  flash  and  shots  to  be  fired,  and  the 
walls  of  the  Indian  rooms  at  many  of  the  forts  show 
frequent  traces  of  bullet-marks  and  knife  hacking,  done 
in  the  wild  fury  of  the  intoxicated  savage." 

Belief  in  the  supernatural  was  prevalent  among  all  the 
Indians,  and  fear  of  invisible  powers  played  an  extremely 
important  part  in  their  lives.  In  practically  every  band 
there  was  at  least  one  medicine  man.  This  person  was 
usually  a  sort  of  compound  of  physician,  priest,  and  con- 
jurer. With  some  knowledge  of  the  medical  properties 
of  roots  and  herbs  he  might  combine  skill  as  a  juggler 
and  a  pretense  at  being  able  to  commune  with  good  and 
evil  spirits.  Some  medicine  men  were  well  meaning,  oc- 
casionally even  useful;  others  were  crafty,  cruel,  design- 
ing rascals,  who  used  their  real  and  pretended  power  to 
terrify  others  into  doing  what  the  medicine  man  willed. 
Most  pretended  to  be  able  to  cast  spells  over  others. 
Some  were  diabolical  poisoners  who  kept  all  about  them 
in  a  state  of  terror. 

Every  medicine  man  performed  mysterious  incanta- 
tions, and  each  had  his  "  medicine  bag."  These  bags 
were  often  made  out  of  the  skin  of  some  unborn  animal. 
Their  contents  were  extremely  varied:  dried  roots  and 
herbs,  colored  powders,  talons  and  claws  of  birds,  feathers, 
snake  and  frog  skins,  human  finger  and  toe  nails,  hu- 
man hair,  carved  images  of  beasts  and  birds.  The 
articles  would  probably  be  tied  up  separately  in  skins 
or  birchbark  and  labeled  with  totemic  symbols. 

Though  accustomed  to  impose  upon  the  ignorance  of 
others,  the  medicine  men  were  themselves  often  credulous. 
Joke-loving  white  men  now  and  then  had  fun  at  their 


i62     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

expense.    Occasionally  this  fun  took  an  unexpected  direc- 
tion.    The  author  of  The  Great  Fur  Land  relates  that 
on  a  winter's  day  a  number  of  Indians  came  to  his  house 
to  beg  for  food.    "  Among  them  were  several  noted  con- 
jurers.   Some  freak  of  curiosity  tempted  us  to  try  how 
far  their  belief  in  the  supernatural  would  carry  them; 
and,  having  a  large  music  box  in  our  possession,  it  was 
wound  up  and  placed  unnoticed  upon  the  table.     In  a 
moment  it  began  playing,   and   the  notes   of   '  Bonnie 
Doon,'  '  The  Lass  o'  Cowrie,'  etc.,  resounded  through  the 
apartment.    At  its  first  chords  the  faces  of  the  savages 
assumed  a  wondering,  dazed  expression.     But,  quickly 
recovering  from  that  phase  of  amazement,  they  began 
to  trace  the  sound  to  its  origin.    After  some  minutes  of 
deep  attention,  one  old  man  evidently  discovered  the 
source,  and  without  a  moment's  hesitation  raised  his  gun 
and  fired  it  at  the  box.     It  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to 
mention  that  the  instrument  was,  to  use  a  nautical  expres- 
sion, '  a  total  wreck.'     The  conjurer  asserted  that  the 
music  was  produced  by  an  evil  spirit  concealed  in  the 
box,  and  could  only  be  driven  out  by  a  gunshot.     Our 
curiosity  was  satisfied,  but  at  a  considerable  expense." 
The  Assiniboines,  Blackfeet,  and  other  northwestern 
tribes   frequently  built  pounds   into  which  they  would 
drive  the  buffaloes.    These  pounds  varied  in  size  accord- 
ing to  circumstances  and  the  number  of  Indians  who 
engaged  in  the  enterprise.     The  inclosure  was  made  of 
logs    laid   one   upon    the   other    and    interwoven    with 
branches  and  twigs.    The  entrance  was  usually  about  ten 
paces  wide  and  always  fronted  upon  the  open  prairie. 
From  each  side  of  the  entrance  diverging  lines  of  stakes 
or  brush  were  erected;  these  lines  were  made  impenetra- 
ble at  first  but  at  some  distance  from  the  pound  they 


FURTHER  SIDELIGHTS  ON  INDIAN  LIFE      163 

consisted  merely  of  occasional  stakes  or  bundles  of  brush. 
When  the  pound  was  ready  and  conditions  were 
propitious,  young  braves  were  sent  out  to  drive  in  the 
buffaloes.  This  was  a  task  that  required  much  patience, 
for  the  animals  must  be  started  and  driven  slowly. 
Sometimes  the  work  was  partly  done  by  starting  small 
fires  of  grass  or  buffalo  chips.  Success  was  most  likely 
when  the  wind  blew  toward  the  pound.  Having  brought 
the  buffaloes  within  the  lines  of  stakes  and  brush,  the 
Indians  usually  hurried  the  herd  on  more  rapidly^  while 
a  swift  runner  wearing  a  buffalo  robe  over  his  head  would 
appear  ahead  of  them,  and  imitating  a  buffalo  as  well 
as  he  could,  make  toward  the  entrance.  If  all  went  well, 
the  simple-minded  quarry  would  follow  this  guide.  Some- 
times a  trained  pony  would  play  this  part.  An  Indian 
sentinel  was  always  on  the  lookout,  and  when  a  herd 
appeared  in  sight,  he  would  notify  the  village,  and  every 
warrior,  squaw,  and  child  able  to  run  would  hurry  to  a 
position  such  that  by  waving  their  robes  they  could  pre- 
vent the  buffaloes  from  taking  the  wrong  direction.  On 
reaching  the  entrance  the  buffaloes  would  tumble  in  pell- 
mell  behind  the  guide,  and  some  would  usually  break 
their  legs  or  necks  jumping  in,  as  the  entrance  was 
usually  so  constructed  that  there  was  a  descent  of  at 
least  six  or  eight  feet.  When  the  animals  were  inside, 
the  entrance,  if  necessary,  was  blocked  up  with  logs  or 
brush,  and  the  warriors  then  took  up  favorable  positions 
on  the  inclosure  and  let  fly  their  arrows  until  the  last 
buffalo  was  slain.  The  squaws  then  entered  the  pound 
and  did  the  work  of  butchering.  Usually  only  the  fattest 
cows  and  calves  were  used;  the  thin  cows  and  the  tough 
old  bulls  were  left  for  the  dogs,  which  hung  round  the 
pound  in  droves. 


i64     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

In  February,  1776,  Alexander  Henry  the  Elder  ac- 
companied some  Assiniboines  in  what  is  now  Manitoba 
and  saw  them  kill  many  buffaloes,  which  he  calls  oxen, 
in  such  a  pound. 

"  In  the  morning,"  says  he,  "  we  went  to  the  hunt 
accordingly.  The  chief  was  followed  by  about  forty 
men  and  a  great  number  of  women.  We  proceeded  to 
a  small  island  [of  timber]  on  the  plain,  at  the  distance 
of  five  miles  from  the  village.  On  our  way  we  saw 
large  herds  of  oxen  at  feed,  but  the  hunters  forbore  to 
molest  them  lest  they  take  the  alarm. 

"  Arrived  at  the  island,  the  women  pitched  a  few  tents, 
while  the  chief  led  his  hunters  to  its  southern  end,  where 
there  was  a  pound  or  inclosure.  The  fence  was  about 
four  feet  high,  and  formed  of  strong  stakes  of  birch- 
wood,  wattled  with  smaller  branches  of  the  same.  The 
day  was  spent  in  making  repairs,  and  by  the  evening 
all  was  ready  for  the  hunt. 

"  At  daylight  several  of  the  more  expert  hunters  were 
sent  to  decoy  the  animals  into  the  pound.  They  were 
dressed  in  ox  skins,  with  the  hair  and  horns.  Their  faces 
were  covered,  and  their  gestures  so  closely  resembled 
those  of  the  animals  themselves  that,  had  I  not  been  in 
the  secret,  I  should  have  been  as  much  deceived  as  the 
oxen. 

"  At  ten  o'clock  one  of  the  hunters  returned,  bringing 
information  of  the  herd.  Immediately  all  the  dogs  were 
muzzled;  and,  this  done,  the  whole  crowd  of  men  and 
women  surrounded  the  outside  of  the  pound.  The  herd, 
of  which  the  extent  was  so  great  that  I  cannot  pretend 
to  estimate  the  numbers,  was  distant  half  a  mile,  ad- 
vancing slowly,  and  frequently  stopping  to  feed.  The 
part  played  by  the  decoyers  was  that  of  approaching 


FURTHER  SIDELIGHTS  ON  INDIAN  LIFE      165 

them  within  hearing  and  then  bellowing  like  themselves. 
On  hearing  the  noise,  the  oxen  did  not  fail  to  give  it  atten- 
tion, and,  whether  from  curiosity  or  sympathy,  advanced 
to  meet  those  from  whom  it  proceeded.  These,  in  the 
meantime,  fell  back  deliberately  toward  the  pound,  al- 
ways repeating  the  call  whenever  the  oxen  stopped.  This 
was  reiterated  till  the  leaders  of  the  herd  had  followed 
the  decoyers  into  the  jaws  of  the  pound,  which,  though 
wide  asunder  toward  the  plain,  terminated,  like  a  funnel, 
in  a  small  aperture  or  gateway,  and  within  this  was  the 
pound  itself.  The  Indians  remark  that  in  all  herds  of 
animals  there  are  chiefs,  or  leaders,  by  whom  the  motions 
of  the  rest  are  determined. 

"  The  decoyers  now  retired  within  the  pound,  and  were 
followed  by  the  oxen.  But  the  former  retired  still  fur- 
ther, withdrawing  themselves  at  certain  movable  parts 
of  the  fence,  while  the  latter  were  fallen  upon  by  the 
hunters  and  presently  wounded  or  killed  by  showers  of 
arrows.  Amid  the  uproar  which  ensued  the  oxen  made 
several  attempts  to  force  the  fence,  but  the  Indians 
stopped  them  and  drove  them  back  by  shaking  skins  be- 
fore their  eyes.  Skins  were  also  made  use  of  to  stop  the 
entrance,  being  let  down  by  strings  as  soon  as  the  oxen 
were  inside.  The  slaughter  was  prolonged  till  the  eve- 
ning, when  the  hunters  returned  to  their  tents.  Next 
morning  all  the  tongues  were  presented  to  the  chief,  to 
the  number  of  seventy-two. 

"  The  women  brought  the  meat  to  the  village  on 
sledges  drawn  by  dogs.  The  lumps  on  the  shoulders, 
and  the  hearts,  as  well  as  the  tongues,  were  set  apart 
for  feasts,  while  the  rest  was  consumed  as  ordinary  food, 
or  dried,  for  sale  at  the  fort." 

Occasionally,  instead  of  building  a  pound,  the  Indians, 


i66      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

riding  on  horseback,  would  drive  a  buffalo  herd  over  a 
high  cliff.  On  reaching  the  edge  of  the  cliff  the  leaders 
of  the  doomed  animals  would  often  try  to  stop,  but  would 
be  pushed  over  by  those  behind^  and  all,  or  nearly  all, 
would  go  plunging  over  the  brink  to  destruction.  Hun- 
dreds of  animals  would  sometimes  be  piled  up  in  one 
great  heap  of  dead,  while  many  others,  though  not  in- 
stantly killed,  would  suffer  broken  legs  or  other  serious 
injuries.  Often  so  many  animals  were  killed  that  most 
would  be  left  to  the  coyotes,  wolves,  vultures,  and  bears, 
and  the  air  for  miles  around  would  be  poisoned  with  the 
noxious  effluvia  from  the  rotting  carcasses. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   TRAGIC   VOYAGES   OF   SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN 

A  FEW  years  after  the  close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  the 
British  government  determined  to  send  out  an  expedition 
to  explore  the  coast  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  eastward  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Coppermine  River,  the  point  reached 
nearly  forty  years  before  by  Hearne. 

The  man  selected  for  the  task  was  John  Franklin,  a 
captain  in  the  Royal  Navy.  Franklin  was  at  that  time 
thirty-three  years  old,  and  was  a  man  of  culture  and 
ability  along  scientific  lines,  but  he  had  never  before  had 
any  experience  in  wilderness  travel.  To  accompany  him 
the  Admiralty  selected  a  surgeon  named  John  Richardson, 
and  two  midshipmen,  George  Back  and  Robert  Hood. 
A  more  humble  member  of  the  expedition  was  an  ener- 
getic and  faithful  seaman  named  John  Hepburn. 

Both  Hood  and  Back  were  artists  of  some  ability  and 
were  to  make  drawings  of  the  country  and  the  natives. 
Dr.  Richardson,  in  addition  to  looking  after  the  health 
of  the  members  of  the  expedition,  was  to  act  as  naturalist. 
Besides  mapping  the  Arctic  coast,  Franklin  and  his  asso- 
ciates were  to  examine  the  copper  deposits  seen  by 
Hearne  and  were  to  study  such  natural  phenomena  as 
the  Aurora  Borealis  and  the  variation  of  the  magnetic 
compass.  At  that  time  the  Magnetic  Pole  had  not  yet 
been  located.  We  know  now  that  it  is  situated  on  the 
peninsula  of  Boothia  Felix  northwest  of  Hudson  Bay. 

In  May,  1819,  the  party  left  England  on  board  a  ship 

162 


i68      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

belonging  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  They  nar- 
rowly escaped  being  cast  away  on  the  barren  coast  of 
Labrador,  and  it  was  not  until  the  30th  of  August  that 
their  ship,  still  leaking  badly,  cast  anchor  off  York  Fac- 
tory. Six  weeks  of  hard  travel  by  way  of  the  Nelson 
River,  Lake  Winnipeg,  and  the  Saskatchewan  brought 
them  to  Cumberland  House,  one  of  the  main  fur  posts 
in  the  northwest.  Thence  they  made  the  long  and  ardu- 
ous trip  to  Fort  Chipewyan  on  Lake  Athabasca  by  dog 
sledge. 

Both  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  and  the  Northwest 
Company  had  instructed  their  agents  to  render  Frank- 
lin's party  every  assistance  in  their  power,  but  ruinous 
competition  between  these  two  companies  had  reduced 
their  stocks  of  goods  at  the  remote  posts,  while  an  epi- 
demic of  measles  and  whooping  cough  had  swept  over 
the  northwest  carrying  off  many  of  the  Indians  and 
weakening  the  rest  so  that  they  had  not  brought  to  the 
posts  as  much  meat  as  formerly.  When  the  expedition 
left  Chipewyan  in  July,  1820,  it  was  poorly  provided  in 
goods,  and  its  stock  of  provisions  did  not  amount  to  more 
than  one  day's  rations,  exclusive  of  two  barrels  of  flour, 
three  cases  of  preserved  meats,  some  chocolate,  arrow- 
root, and  portable  soup,  which  were  intended  for  use 
along  the  Arctic  coast. 

The  party  consisted  of  Franklin,  Dr.  Richardson, 
Hood,  Back,  Hepburn,  sixteen  Canadian  voyageurs,  and 
a  Chipewyan  squaw.  Subsequently  at  Great  Slave  Lake 
they  were  joined  by  a  fur  trader  named  Wenzel  and  by 
two  French-Canadian  interpreters  named  St.  Germain 
and  Adam.  It  had  been  difficult  to  obtain  volunteers  for 
the  expedition,  and  some  of  the  men  who  finally  con- 
sented to  go  were  of  poor  quality.     Furthermore,  the 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN         169 

expedition  was  much  too  large,  considering  that  it  must 
live  almost  entirely  off  the  country. 

At  first,  however,  things  went  reasonably  well.  Many 
fish  were  caught,  some  game  was  killed,  and  considerable 
other  food  was  obtained  at  posts  along  the  way.  Leav- 
ing Great  Slave  Lake,  they  ascended  a  stream  known  as 
the  Yellow  Knife  River  and  made  a  series  of  portages 
to  a  lake  which  formed  one  of  the  headwaters  of  the 
Coppermine  River.  Here  they  established  a  post  called 
Fort  Enterprise  and  spent  the  winter.  Aided  by  a  band 
of  Indians  under  a  chief  named  Akaitcho,  they  were  able 
to  obtain  sufficient  fish  and  game  to  live  reasonably  well. 
Back  and  Wenzel,  with  two  Canadians  and  two  Indian 
hunters  and  their  wives,  made  a  thousand-mile  winter 
journey  back  to  Chipewyan  and  returned  with  mail  from 
the  outside  world  and  rather  meager  supplies  of  ammuni- 
tion and  other  supplies.  The  fact  that  the  expedition  was 
poorly  provided  with  goods  made  a  bad  impression  on 
the  Indians  and  doubtless  had  something  to  do  with 
bringing  on  subsequent  misfortunes  that  befell  the  expe- 
dition. 

In  June  the  explorers,  aided  by  the  Indians,  proceeded 
to  the  Coppermine  River  and  began  the  descent  of  that 
stream.  They  were  accompanied  by  two  Eskimos,  named 
Augustus  and  Junius,  who  had  made  the  long  journey 
from  Hudson  Bay  by  way  of  Lake  Winnipeg,  the  Sas- 
katchewan, and  the  Mackenzie  in  order  to  act  as  inter- 
preters in  case  the  explorers  should  meet  some  of  their 
people  on  the  Arctic  coast.  The  expedition  was  still 
badly  equipped  in  many  respects  and  was  almost  wholly 
dependent  for  food  upon  what  could  be  killed  or  caught. 

Franklin  was  extremely  anxious  to  establish  friendly 
relations  with  the  Eskimos,  and  when  the  expedition 


I70     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

neared  Bloody  Falls  he  sent  Augustus  and  Junius  ahead 
to  carry  presents  to  their  countrymen  and  to  tell  them 
that  the  white  men  desired  to  make  peace  between  them 
and  their  enemies  the  Indians.  The  ambassadors  found 
a  band  of  Eskimos  at  the  falls  and  entered  into  talk  with 
them,  but  the  inopportune  arrival  of  the  rest  of  the  party 
alarmed  the  wild  Eskimos  and  they  fled  down  the  river, 
leaving  most  of  their  goods  behind  them. 

At  the  falls  Franklin  noticed  several  human  skulls  that 
bore  marks  of  violence  and  also  many  other  bones,  and 
he  decided  that  these  were  relics  of  the  massacre  wit- 
nessed by  Hearne  nearly  forty  years  before. 

Subsequently  more  Eskimos  were  seen,  and  friendly 
relations  were  established  with  an  aged  couple  whose 
infirmities  prevented  them  from  escaping.  However,  the 
rest  of  the  Eskimos  were  in  such  terror  of  the  Indians 
who  were  with  Franklin's  party  that  they  fled  into  the 
wilderness.  Furthermore,  the  Indians  themselves  be- 
came alarmed  and  set  off  up  the  Coppermine  in  a  panic, 
but  not  before  they  had  promised  to  provide  a  deposit 
of  meat  at  Fort  Enterprise.  Wenzel  and  four  of  the 
voyageurs  were  also  sent  back  from  this  place.  St.  Ger- 
main and  Adam,  the  two  interpreters,  and  most  of  the 
other  voyageurs  were  also  anxious  to  return,  prophesying 
disasters  ahead,  but  this  Franklin  would  not  permit. 

The  party  was  now  reduced  to  twenty  persons  in  two 
large  birchbark  canoes.  The  number  was  still  too  large 
to  be  certain  of  obtaining  a  livelihood  off  the  country. 
Twenty  men  require  a  great  deal  of  food  to  sustain  them, 
and  unfortunately  only  two  of  the  party,  namely  the 
interpreters,  St.  Germain  and  Adam,  were  dependable  as 
hunters.  The  Encrlishmen,  though  brave,  had  no  skill  in 
that  line,  nor,  if  the  truth  must  be  told,  much  resource- 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN         171 

fulness  in  the  battle  with  the  wilderness.  In  the  lan- 
guage of  a  later  day  they  were  "  tenderfeet."  Even  most 
of  the  French  Canadians,  though  good  boatmen,  were 
not  well  fitted  for  the  trials  ahead. 

During  the  latter  part  of  July  and  the  first  half  of 
August  the  explorers  cruised  eastward  along  the  irregular 
Arctic  coast;  being  often  delayed  by  movements  of  the 
ice.  Franklin  hoped  all  the  while  to  find  Eskimos  from 
whom  he  could  obtain  provisions,  but,  though  many 
traces  of  these  people  were  noticed  along  the  coast,  no 
more  of  the  Eskimos  themselves  were  seen.  Some  fish 
were  caught  and  caribou,  waterfowl,  and  other  game  were 
killed,  but  the  explorers  were  frequently  forced  to  make 
use  of  the  scanty  stock  of  dried  meat  and  other  provi- 
sions they  carried  with  them. 

Finally,  south  of  Point  Turnagain,  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  the  bay  named  Coronation  Gulf  by  Franklin,  the 
explorers  turned  back.  They  did  not  attempt  to  return 
by  way  of  the  Coppermine,  but  instead  ascended  a 
stream  called  by  Franklin  Hood's  River,  intending  to 
follow  it  to  its  source  and  then  strike  southeastward 
across  country  to  Fort  Enterprise.  So  many  rapids  and 
falls  were  soon  met  with  that  two  small  canoes,  each 
capable  of  carrying  three  persons,  were  made  out  of  the 
larger  craft,  and  some  of  the  baggage  was  abandoned. 
The  explorers  followed  Hood's  River  a  few  days  more 
and  then,  leaving  it,  struck  off  southwestward  for  the 
fort,  distant  in  a  straight  line  less  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles.  They  took  with  them  the  small  canoes  for 
use  in  crossing  any  rivers  or  lakes  they  might  come 
upon. 

It  was  still  early  in  September,  but  already,  in  that  far 
northern  country,  winter  was  at  hand.     The  land  was 


172      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

treeless,  and  the  moss  upon  which  they  were  dependent 
for  fuel  was  often  too  wet  to  burn.  At  first  they  were 
lucky  enough  to  kill  a  few  caribou  and  musk-oxen,  but 
they  were  delayed  by  storms  and  the  men  were  improvi- 
dent in  the  use  of  food.  One  of  the  canoes  was  so  badly 
damaged,  probably  purposely  by  the  men  who  carried  it, 
that  it  was  used  on  September  8th  to  cook  the  last  of 
the  arrow-root  and  portable  soup^  the  first  meal  the  ex- 
plorers had  had  for  three  days.  In  the  next  two  days 
a  few  ptarmigan  were  killed,  and  the  party  also  began 
to  gather  and  cook  a  sort  of  lichen  called  by  the  Cana- 
dians tripe  de  roche.  This  last  dish  helped  to  satisfy 
the  cravings  of  hunger,  but  there  was  little  nutriment 
in  it,  and  it  did  some  of  the  men  more  harm  than  good, 
as  it  upset  their  stomachs.  Another  thing  to  which  the 
party  had  recourse  was  the  shrub  known  as  Labrador 
tea,  from  the  twigs  of  which  they  made  a  beverage  that 
helped  to  revive  their  courage. 

On  September  loth  they  came  upon  a  herd  of  musk- 
oxen  grazing  in  a  valley,  but  the  hunt  was  badly  managed, 
and  only  one,  a  cow,  was  killed.  She  afforded  them  the 
first  real  meal  they  had  had  for  six  days.  Even  the  in- 
testines and  the  contents  of  the  stomach  were  devoured. 

Next  day  they  were  forced  to  remain  in  camp  by  a 
snowstorm.  They  restricted  themselves  to  a  single  meal, 
yet  even  then  had  only  meat  for  one  more  day.  In  the 
morning,  though  the  gale  was  still  strong,  they  set  out 
through  snow  two  feet  deep.  By  night  they  were  much 
worn  out,  nor  did  the  musk-ox  meat  seem  to  have  helped 
them  much.  Next  day  they  had  nothing  to  eat  save 
tripe  de  roohe  and  a  single  ptarmigan  and  had  the  mis- 
fortune to  come  upon  a  large  lake,  which  stretched  away 
for  many  miles  right  across  their  path.    Franklin  now 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN         173 

made  the  discovery  that  the  French  Canadians  had 
thrown  away  three  of  the  fishing  nets  and  burnt  the 
floats;  the  loss  was  a  grave  one,  for  with  the  nets  it 
might  have  been  possible  to  catch  many  fish.  The  men 
were,  in  fact,  for  the  most  part  thoughtless,  wasteful, 
and  rebellious.  Next  morning,  however,  one  of  them, 
Perrault,  kindly  gave  to  the  half-starved  officers  a  piece 
of  meat  which  he  had  saved  from  his  own  allowance. 

Later  in  the  day  one  of  the  hunters  killed  two  caribou, 
but  in  crossing  a  river  the  canoe  was  upset,  and  one  of 
the  men  was  nearly  drowned.  Next  day  another  caribou 
was  killed,  but  there  were  so  many  mouths  to  fill  that 
the  meat  was  soon  consumed.  Several  starving  days  fol- 
lowed during  which  the  party  made  its  way  slowly 
through  rough  country,  greatly  impeded  by  the  snow  and 
being  often  forced  to  pass  the  nights  in  wet  clothes  shiv- 
ering in  a  fireless  camp.  The  men  were  now  straggling 
badly,  and  on  September  2 2d  the  second  canoe  was  left 
behind  by  the  men  who  had  it  in  charge.  Starvation  was 
so  great  that  when  the  men  found  the  bones  and  a  little 
of  the  skin  of  a  caribou  that  had  been  killed  by  wolves 
the  preceding  spring  they  ate  them,  having  first  rendered 
the  bones  friable  by  burning.  Scraps  of  leather  and 
worn-out  moccasins  were  also  consumed. 

On  September  25th  five  small  caribou  were  killed. 
With  proper  management  the  meat  thus  obtained  would 
have  lasted  some  time,  but  it  was  all  divided  equally,  and 
some  of  the  men  consumed  a  third  of  their  share  the 
first  day.  Some  ate  so  much,  in  fact,  that  they  were  made 
ill  and  were  weakened  in  consequence.  After  resting  a 
day  the  party  moved  onward  and  came  to  the  Copper- 
mine River  at  a  place  where  the  current  was  very  swift. 
Despairing  of  crossing,  they  followed  the  river  until  they 


174     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THIi;  NORTHWEST 

came  to  a  large  lake.  They  attempted  to  get  round  this 
but  came  to  an  arm  stretching  to  the  northeastward  and, 
after  wasting  much  time  and  effort,  turned  back  to  the 
river.  The  rotten  carcass  of  a  deer  was  found  and 
eagerly  devoured.  Some  of  the  meat  belonging  to  the 
officers  was  stolen  by  the  men  and  eaten  by  them.  Oc- 
casionally, too^  the  men  would  shoot  ptarmigan  and  would 
eat  them  surreptitiously  instead  of  adding  them  to  the 
common  stock. 

On  the  shore  of  this  lake  Junius,  one  of  the  Eskimos, 
became  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  party,  owing  to 
their  turning  back,  and  he  was  not  seen  again.  As  he 
had  a  gun,  ammunition,  a  small  kettle,  and  other  neces- 
saries, Franklin  hoped  that  he  would  follow  the  course 
of  the  Coppermine  until  he  reached  some  of  his  own 
people.    Probably,  however,  he  died  in  the  wilderness. 

When  they  got  back  to  the  river,  the  party  made  a 
raft  of  bundles  of  small  willows.  But  the  willows  were 
green,  and  the  raft  had  such  little  buoyancy  that  it  would 
support  only  one  man.  The  current  was  exceedingly 
swift,  the  wind  blew  strongly  from  across  the  river,  and 
repeated  attempts  to  cross  failed.  Finally  Dr.  Richard- 
son tried  to  swim  the  stream  with  a  line  and  haul  the 
raft  across.  Just  before  starting  he  stepped  on  a  knife, 
which  cut  his  foot  to  the  bone.  He  nearly  reached  the 
opposite  bank  but  then  became  so  benumbed  by  the  icy 
water  that  he  sank  out  of  sight.  He  was  dragged  back 
to  shore  and  was  pulled  out  upon  the  bank  in  an  almost 
lifeless  condition.  His  wet  clothes  were  taken  off,  and 
he  was  laid  before  a  fire.  But  the  mistake  was  made  of 
putting  him  too  close,  and  one  of  his  sides  was  so  badly 
burned  that  he  did  not  recover  from  the  effects  until  the 
following  summer. 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN         175 

The  sight  of  his  naked  body  had  a  painful  effect  upon 
all  who  saw  it.  "Ah,  que  nous  sommes  maigres! — Oh, 
how  lean  we  are!  "  cried  the  Canadians  when  they  beheld 
his  emaciated  frame. 

Two  more  days  were  lost  at  this  place^  but  finally  the 
party  managed  to  cross  the  river  in  a  canoe  made  out  of 
willows  and  some  painted  canvas  in  which  the  bedding 
had  been  wrapped.  The  food  supply  was  by  this  time 
again  exhausted.  Hunger,  cold,  and  despair  brought 
almost  all  to  a  state  of  pitiable  weakness.  On  October 
4th  Franklin  sent  Back,  St.  Germain,  and  two  French 
Canadians  ahead  with  instructions  to  hurry  to  Fort  En- 
terprise and  return  with  food. 

Next  day  the  main  party  followed  painfully  after, 
toiling  through  the  deep  snow,  pausing  often  from  ex- 
haustion, and  now  and  then  falling  down.  The  men 
straggled  a  great  deal,  and  only  six  miles  were  made  the 
whole  day.  Next  day  the  route  lay  over  a  range  of 
rough,  black  hills.  The  wind  blew  strong,  the  air  was 
piercing  cold.  Two  of  the  men  became  exhausted  and 
had  to  be  abandoned.  The  survivors  spent  a  miserable 
night  in  a  patch  of  small  willows,  unable  to  build  a  fire 
large  enough  to  warm  themselves  or  even  to  thaw  out 
their  moccasins.  At  noon  next  day  they  reached  a  rather 
extensive  thicket  of  willows  near  which  there  was  a  supply 
of  tripe  de  roche  growing  on  the  face  of  the  rocks.  Hood, 
who  was  very  weak,  remained  here,  with  Dr.  Richardson 
and  faithful  John  Hepburn.  Most  of  what  baggage  re- 
mained was  also  left  at  this  place,  and  the  tent  was 
pitched  for  those  remaining  behind. 

Later  in  the  day  the  main  party  reached  some  spruce 
woods,  but  camped  beyond  them.  Next  morning  two 
of  the  men,  Belanger  and  Michel,  pleading  weakness, 


176     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

obtained  permission  to  return  to  the  tent.  Michel  was 
an  Iroquois  Indian.  The  rest  had  not  gone  far  before 
another  man,  Perrault,  burst  into  tears  and  turned  back 
to  the  camp,  which  was  only  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant. 
Later  in  the  day  still  another  man,  an  Italian  named 
Fontano,  also  turned  back.  Augustus,  the  Eskimo,  be- 
came impatient  and  went  ahead  by  himself. 

Only  four  other  men  now  remained  with  Franklin. 
For  three  days,  without  any  other  food  than  tripe  de 
roche,  Labrador  tea,  and  a  few  scraps  of  leather,  they 
struggled  onward  through  the  deep  snow.  At  last,  more 
dead  than  alive,  they  at  last  reached  the  fond  haven  of 
their  hopes.  Fort  Enterprise,  only  to  meet  an  awful 
disappointment.  The  place  was  entirely  desolate.  There 
was  no  deposit  of  provisions,  and  no  trace  either  of 
Wenzel  or  the  Indians.  There  was,  however,  a  note  from 
Back  to  the  effect  that  he  had  gone  in  search  of  the  In- 
dians and  that,  if  he  failed  to  find  them,  he  would  en- 
deavor to  obtain  assistance  at  distant  Fort  Providence 
on  Great  Bear  Lake. 

The  shock  of  disappointment  was  more  than  the  poor 
fellows  could  bear.  "  The  whole  party,"  says  Franklin, 
"  shed  tears,  not  so  much  for  our  own  fate,  as  for  that 
of  our  friends  in  the  rear,  whose  lives  depended  entirely 
on  our  sending  immediate  relief  from  this  place." 

The  same  day  Augustus,  the  Eskimo,  reached  the  fort, 
and  a  few  days  later  Franklin  sent  him  and  Benoit  in 
search  of  the  Indians.  Meanwhile,  Franklin  and  his 
comrades  lived  off  tripe  de  roche  and  scraps  of  skins 
and  bones  that  had  been  thrown  on  the  dump  heap  the 
winter  before.  Of  course,  such  food  contained  little 
nourishment.  The  bones  were  so  acrid  that  soup  made 
from  them  made  the  mouths  of  those  who  ate  it  sore. 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN         177 

One  day  while  the  four  men,  two  of  whom  were  now 
too  weak  to  walk,  were  sitting  before  the  fire  talking 
about  the  possibility  of  relief  coming,  two  men  entered, 
each  carrying  a  pack.  They  were  Dr.  Richardson  and 
Hepburn,  whom  Franklin  had  not  seen  for  twenty-two 
days. 

"  Upon  entering  the  now  desolate  building,"  says  Dr. 
Richardson,  "  we  had  the  satisfaction  of  embracing  Cap- 
tain Franklin,  but  no  words  can  convey  an  idea  of  the 
filth  and  wretchedness  that  met  our  eyes  on  looking 
around.  Our  own  misery  had  stolen  upon  us  by  degrees, 
and  we  were  accustomed  to  the  contemplation  of  each 
other's  emaciated  figures,  but  the  ghastly  countenances, 
dilated  eye-balls,  and  sepulchral  voices  of  Captain  Frank- 
lin and  those  with  him  were  more  than  we  could  at  first 
bear." 

However,  Dr.  Richardson  and  Hepburn  had  passed 
through  experiences  far  more  horrible  than  those  which 
had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  Franklin.  The  day  following  the 
parting  had  been  so  stormy  that  the  doctor,  Hood,  and 
Hepburn,  weak  and  wretched,  had  remained  in  the  tent 
all  day.  The  next  day  Michel,  the  Iroquois,  came  to  the 
camp  with  word  that  there  was  a  clump  of  spruce  trees 
ahead  which  would  furnish  fuel,  and  he  said  that  his 
companion,  Belanger,  had  started  out  earlier  than  he 
and  must  have  been  lost.  Michel  had  killed  a  rabbit  and 
a  ptarmigan,  which  he  shared  with  the  others.  During 
the  next  two  days  the  men  moved  their  camp  to  the 
pines,  and  Michel  spent  much  time  hunting.  On  the 
third  day  the  Iroquois  brought  in  some  meat,  which  he 
said  he  had  taken  from  a  wolf  that  had  been  killed  while 
attacking  a  caribou. 

The  others  accepted  his  story  and  ate  of  the  meat,  but 


178      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

later  events  convinced  them  that  in  reality  it  was  part  of 
the  body  of  either  Belanger  or  Perrault.  The  supposition 
is  that  the  Iroquois  had  killed  Belanger  soon  after 
Franklin's  party  left  them  and  that  when  Perrault  be- 
came exhausted  and  came  back  the  Indian  had  then 
killed  him  to  conceal  his  crime. 

For  some  days  Michel  continued  to  hunt  or  pretend  to 
hunt,  spending  much  of  the  time  away  from  camp.  At 
such  times  he  doubtless  was  partaking  of  cannibalistic 
feasts.  He  grew  more  and  more  moody  and  surly.  One 
day  while  the  doctor  was  away  gathering  tripe  de  roche 
and  Hepburn  was  cutting  firewood  they  heard  a  shot  and 
on  returning  to  camp  found  Hood  dead  with  a  bullet 
hole  through  his  head.  Michel  said  that  the  dead  man 
had  committed  suicide,  but  on  examining  the  wound  the 
doctor  found  that  the  bullet  had  entered  from  behind 
and  that  the  gun  had  been  applied  so  close  that  Hood's 
night-cap  had  been  set  on  fire. 

The  Iroquois  kept  close  to  the  others  to  prevent  them 
from  talking  over  the  tragedy,  and  they,  in  their  weak 
state,  felt  at  his  mercy.  Three  days  later  they  started 
for  the  fort,  and  in  the  afternoon  the  Indian  left  them 
and  thus  gave  the  doctor  and  Hepburn  an  opportunity 
to  discuss  their  suspicions.  The  upshot  of  the  matter  was 
that  when  Michel  returned  Dr.  Richardson  "  put  an 
end  to  his  life  by  shooting  him  through  the  head  with  a 
pistol." 

Before  starting  for  the  fort  the  doctor  and  Hepburn 
had  eaten  a  few  ptarmigan,  which  Michel  had  killed,  but 
from  that  time  on  for  many  days,  unless  they  ate  of  the 
dead  man,  they  had  no  food  except  lichens,  a  little 
leather,  and  the  spine  of  a  caribou  that  had  been  dead 
many  months.    From  the  last  they  "  extracted  the  spinal 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN         179 

marrow,  which,  even  in  its  frozen  state,  was  so  acrid  as 
to  excoriate  the  Hps." 

When  near  the  fort,  Hepburn  killed  a  ptarmigan,  and 
this  was  the  only  food  they  brought  to  Franklin  and  his 
three  comrades.  The  doctor  tore  out  the  feathers,  held 
the  bird  before  the  fire  a  few  minutes,  and  t"hen  divided 
it  into  six  portions. 

"  I  and  my  three  companions  ravenously  devoured  our 
shares,"  writes  Franklin,  "  as  it  was  the  first  morsel  of 
flesh  any  of  us  had  tasted  for  thirty-one  days,  unless, 
indeed,  the  small  gristly  particles  which  we  found  occa- 
sionally adhering  to  the  pounded  bones  may  be  termed 
flesh." 

Of  all  the  party  Hepburn  was  now  the  strongest,  and 
upon  him  devolved  most  of  the  labor  of  cutting  and 
bringing  in  wood.  He  also  hunted  a  good  deal,  but, 
though  caribou  were  occasionally  seen  near  the  fort,  he 
failed  to  kill  any.  One  night  both  Peltier  and  Semandre 
died.  Adam,  one  of  the  interpreters,  was  near  death, 
and  a  few  more  days  would  doubtless  have  brought  an 
end  to  the  lives  of  all,  but  on  the  7th  of  November  a 
party  of  Indians  arrived  with  a  supply  of  food. 

News  of  the  plight  of  the  explorers  had  been  brought 
to  the  Indian  camp  by  Augustus,  the  Eskimo,  and  also 
by  St.  Germain,  of  Back's  party.  Back  and  his  comrades 
had  themselves  experienced  terrible  hardships  from 
hunger  and  cold,  and  one  of  them,  Beauparlant,  had  died 
of  hunger  and  cold. 

The  survivors  of  the  expedition  were  taken  to  Fort 
Providence  on  Great  Bear  Lake,  and  with  food  and  care 
gradually  recovered  their  strength.  In  the  spring  they 
made  their  way  out  of  the  country  by  the  way  they  had 
entered  it  and  ultimately  reached  their  homes  in  safety 


i8o     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

thus  ending  one  of  the  most  tragic  exploring  expeditions 
in  American  history. 

In  1825-26  Franklin,  again  accompanied  by  Richard- 
son, Back,  and  Hepburn,  made  another  expedition  to  the 
Arctic  coast.  This  time,  with  more  experienced  manage- 
ment, there  were  no  tragedies,  and  the  coast  line  for  long 
distances  on  both  sides  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie 
River  was  traced  and  mapped. 

Meanwhile,  renewed  efforts  had  been  made  by  sea  to 
solve  the  old  riddle  of  the  Northwest  Passage.  Beginning 
with  181 8  repeated  expeditions  were  sent  out  by  the 
British  Admiralty.  Under  such  captains  as  John  Ross, 
William  E.  Parry,  and  Captain  James  C.  Ross,  progress 
was  made  in  mapping  the  maze  of  islands  and  straits 
to  the  north  of  North  America,  but  no  ship  managed  to 
find  and  sail  through  the  long  sought  for  passage.  The 
most  notable  discovery  of  these  years  was  made  by  an 
expedition  in  which  both  the  Rosses  participated, 
namely  the  location  of  the  North  Magnetic  Pole.  Its 
position  was  found  to  be  at  Cape  Adelaide  on  the  west 
coast  of  the  peninsula  of  Boothia  Felix  in  latitude 
70°  03'  N.,  longitude  96°  44'  W. 

The  fact  that  the  Magnetic  Pole  and  the  North  Pole 
are  not  located  at  the  same  place  had  long  been  known 
to  scientists,  navigators,  surveyors,  etc.,  for,  except  in  a 
few  places,  the  compass  needle  does  not  point  directly 
northward  but  varies  to  the  east  or  west.  When  ex- 
plorers got  to  the  northward  of  the  Magnetic  Pole,  the 
needle  would,  in  fact,  point  south.  At  the  Magnetic 
Pole  the  needle  does  not  point  either  north  or  south  but 
directly  downward.  The  discovery  of  the  exact  location 
of  the  Magnetic  Pole  was  of  great  importance  to  science 
and  to  navigation. 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN        i8i 

The  expedition  which  discovered  the  Magnetic  Pole 
was  gone  five  years,  and  their  long  absence  caused  great 
uneasiness  in  England.  In  1832,  after  three  years  had 
passed  without  any  tidings,  the  government  and  friends 
of  the  explorers  sent  out  a  search  expedition  under 
Franklin's  old  lieutenant.  Back.  Back's  party  made  their 
way  to  Great  Slave  Lake  and  in  1834  succeeded  in 
descending  the  Great  Fish  River  to  the  Arctic  coast. 
They  were  already  aware,  however,  that  the  men  they 
sought  had  reached  England  in  safety,  and  they  soon 
returned  to  Great  Slave  Lake.  In  1836  Back  made  an 
Arctic  expedition  in  command  of  the  Terror,  but  the  ship 
was  beset  by  the  ice  near  Cape  Bylot,  and  for  ten  months 
the  explorers  were  subjected  to  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
moving  ice  pack.  When  release  finally  came,  the  Terror 
was  in  such  bad  condition  that  she  barely  escaped 
foundering  on  the  voyage  back  to  England. 

In  1836  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  decided  to  send 
out  an  expedition  "  to  complete  the  discovery  and  survey 
of  the  northern  shores  of  the  American  continent."  To 
lead  the  expedition  the  Company  selected  two  of  its  own 
men,  P.  W.  Dease  and  Thomas  Simpson,  both  men  of 
great  force  and  determination  and  long  experienced  in 
Northland  travel.  They  managed  the  work  with  great 
skill  and  avoided  the  mistakes  that  had  proved  fatal  to 
so  many  of  their  inexperienced  predecessors.  In  1837 
Simpson  passed  Franklin's  "  farthest  west "  and  reached 
Point  Barrow;  as  this  point  had  already  been  attained 
by  ships  sailing  from  Bering  Strait,  Simpson  thus  filled 
in  the  gap  that  existed  in  the  northwestern  coast-line  of 
the  continent.  On  this  occasion  Dease  consented  to 
command  the  supporting  party  while  the  younger  and 
more  ambitious  Simpson  pushed  ahead;  the  same  tactics 


i82      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

were  subsequently  followed.  In  the  next  two  years 
Simpson  pushed  eastward  far  beyond  Franklin's  "  far- 
thest east,"  reached  Castor  and  Pollux  Bay,  well  be- 
yond the  mouth  of  the  Great  Fish  River,  and  explored 
part  of  Victoria  Land. 

These  expeditions  had  cost  comparatively  little;  their 
remarkable  success  was  due  mainly  to  the  fact  that 
Simpson  and  Dease  were  experienced  men  who  knew 
how.  Of  all  Arctic  travelers  of  the  period  they  were 
the  most  skilled,  with  the  exception  of  Dr.  John  Rae, 
who  was  their  peer;  some  account  of  his  remarkable  work 
will  be  given  later.  As  one  follows  the  long  tale  of 
Arctic  disasters  he  realizes  more  and  more  that  most  of 
them  were  due  to  ignorance  on  the  part  of  those  who 
conducted  them.  It  seems  a  pity  that  all  leaders  were 
not  experienced  men  such  as  Simpson  and  Rae.  As  for 
Simpson  he  would  doubtless  have  been  sent  out  on 
another  expedition,  but  in  1840,  while  in  the  Manitoba 
country,  he  died  by  violence.  According  to  one  theory 
he  committed  suicide  during  a  moment  of  mental  aber- 
ration in  which  he  killed  two  half-breeds  who  were 
traveling  with  him,  but  it  is  much  more  probable  that 
he  became  involved  in  a  dispute  with  the  breeds  and 
that  he  was  slain  by  the  survivors. 

After  his  second  expedition  to  the  Arctic  Franklin 
served  in  various  positions,  among  others  as  governor  of 
Tasmania,  but  in  1845  the  Admiralty  decided  to  send  out 
another  expedition  and,  though  he  was  then  fifty-nine 
years  of  age,  Franklin  was  placed  in  command  of  it.  He 
was  given  two  ships,  the  Erebus  and  Terror,  and  the 
main  task  set  for  him  was  to  find  and  sail  through  the 
Northwest  Passage. 

The  Erebus  and  Terror,  with  one  hundred  and  twenty- 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN         183 

nine  souls  on  board  and  provisions  for  three  years,  sailed 
from  England  on  May  26,  1845.  They  reached  the 
Arctic  seas  and  on  July  12,  1845,  were  seen  by  the  crew 
of  a  whaling  vessel  moored  to  an  iceberg  waiting  for  an 
opening  in  the  middle  ice  so  as  to  cross  Lancaster 
Sound.  Then  those  on  board  vanished  from  the  sight 
of  men,  and  for  years  no  tidings  came  as  to  their  fate. 

Uneasiness  began  to  develop  regarding  the  safety  of 
the  explorers  as  early  as  the  winter  of  1846-47,  but  it  was 
not  until  1848  that  the  Admiralty  was  fully  roused.  From 
that  time  forward  for  years  expedition  after  expedition 
was  sent  out  to  search  for  the  missing  men,  some  by  the 
British  government,  one  by  Lady  Franklin,  who  spent 
practically  the  whole  of  her  fortune  for  that  purpose. 
Even  America  participated  in  the  search,  for  the  whole 
civilized  world  was  keenly  interested.  The  searching 
parties  went  by  ship  from  the  east  and  from  the  west, 
and  overland  from  the  south.  Some  of  these  expeditions 
made  important  geographical  discoveries,  and  Captain 
Richard  Collinson  in  the  Enterprise,  sailing  from  the 
west,  reached  in  1851  Gateshead  Island,  whence  he  could 
look  across  the  strait  where,  it  is  now  believed,  one  of 
Franklin's  vessels  sank,  to  King  William's  Land,  where 
lay  the  skeletons  of  some  of  the  men  he  sought.  But  of 
these  things  he  was  wholly  unaware.  Another  vessel  from 
the  west,  the  Investigator,  under  Captain  McClure, 
reached  Barrow  Strait,  but  there  ran  aground  and  was 
ultimately  abandoned.  The  crew,  however,  traveled  over 
the  ice  and  joined  an  eastern  searching  party  and  thus 
made  the  Northwest  Passage,  though  not  all  of  it  by 
ship. 

It  was  not  until  March,  1854,  that  Dr.  John  Rae  ob- 
tained authentic  information  as  to  the  fate  of  the  expe- 


i84     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

dition.  In  1845-47,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company,  Rae  had  continued  the  work  of  Simpson 
and  had  practically  completed  the  exploration  of  the 
northern  coast  of  North  America.  During  this  time  he 
displayed  untiring  energy  and  great  skill  in  traveling  and 
in  obtaining  a  living  off  the  country.  In  1848  he  took 
up  the  search  for  Franklin  and  continued  it  for  several 
years.  Finally,  at  the  time  given  above,  he  met  Eskimos 
who  gave  him  information  to  the  effect  that  every  man 
of  the  expedition  had  perished.  Their  stories  were  rein- 
forced by  the  fact  that  they  had  in  their  possession  many 
objects  which  had  belonged  to  the  expedition.  Upon 
returning  to  civilization,  Dr.  Rae  and  his  companions 
were  given  ten  thousand  pounds,  the  reward  offered  by 
the  Admiralty  to  any  one  who  would  set  at  rest  the 
fate  of  Franklin  and  his  companions. 

For  several  decades  thereafter  other  explorers,  notably 
Captain  McClintock,  who  was  sent  out  by  Lady  Frank- 
lin, obtained  additional  information  from  the  natives, 
found  the  skeletons  of  some  of  the  dead  and  many  arti- 
cles belonging  to  the  expedition,  also  two  short  written 
papers.  From  all  this  data  the  story  of  what  befell  the 
expedition  was  finally  pieced  out. 

The  Erebus  and  Terror  spent  the  winter  of  1845-46  at 
Beechey  Island.  When  the  ice  broke  up  next  summer 
they  sailed  away  but  were  beset  in  Victoria  Strait  on 
September  12,  1846,  and  all  efforts  to  free  them  were 
in  vain.  Finally  on  April  22,  1848,  they  were  abandoned. 
Up  to  that  time  twenty-four  officers  and  men  had  died, 
including  Franklin  himself,  who  passed  away  on  June  11, 
1847.  The  food  supply  was  scanty,  and  the  survivors, 
one  hundred  and  five  in  all,  set  out  for  Back's  Fish  River, 
two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  southward,  hoping  doubt- 


VOYAGES  OF  SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN         185 

less  to  subsist  on  the  fish  and  game  they  might  find  there. 
But  it  was  a  hopeless  quest.  One  by  one  their  strength 
gave  out  and  they  perished  of  disease,  cold,  and  hunger. 
A  small  party  of  Eskimos  saw  and  camped  with  some 
of  the  white  men,  but  fearing  their  own  safety  would  be 
compromised  by  remaining,  they  stole  away  and  left  the 
white  men  to  their  fate.  ^'  They  fell  down  and  died  as 
they  walked,"  said  an  old  Eskimo  woman  who  eleven 
years  later  told  the  story  to  McClintock.  The  end  of  the 
last  man  of  the  unfortunate  expedition  has  thus  been  pic- 
tured by  one  who  in  after  years  penetrated  to  that  boreal 
solitude: 

"  One  sees  this  man,  after  the  death  of  his  last  remain- 
ing companions,  all  alone  in  that  terrible  world,  gazing 
round  him  in  mute  despair,  the  sole  living  thing  in  that 
dark,  frozen  universe.  The  sky  is  somber,  the  earth 
whitened  with  a  glittering  whiteness  that  chills  the  heart. 
His  clothing  is  covered  with  frozen  snow,  his  face  lean 
and  haggard,  his  beard  a  cluster  of  icicles.  The  setting 
sun  looks  back  to  see  the  last  wretched  victim  die.  He 
meets  her  sinister  gaze  with  a  steady  eye,  as  though 
bidding  her  defiance.  For  a  few  minutes  they  glare  at 
each  other,  then  the  curtain  is  drawn  and  all  is  dark." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

LATER  TRAVELERS  AND  EXPLORERS   IN  THE 
CANADIAN   NORTHWEST 

Of  the  other  explorers  of  the  great  Northwest  perhaps 
the  most  notable  were  Simon  Fraser  and  David  Thomp- 
son. Fraser  entered  the  service  of  the  Northwest  Com- 
pany at  sixteen  and  at  different  times  he  was  stationed 
in  almost  every  section  of  the  fur  country  from  Lake 
Superior  to  the  Pacific.  In  1805  he  ascended  the  Peace 
and  Parsnip  Rivers,  turned  up  that  tributary  of  the 
Parsnip  that  is  now  known  as  Pack  River,  and  on  a  long 
narrow  lake  that  he  named  Lake  McLeod  he  established 
the  first  post  west  of  the  Rockies  and  north  of  the 
Spanish  settlements  in  California.  I  saw  this  post  in 
1 91 6  and  again  three  years  later.  It  is  still  far  remote 
from  railroads  and  civilization  and  consists  merely  of 
two  log  houses.  A  small  band  of  Siccanni  Indians  have 
their  huts  close  by,  and  two  or  three  trappers  and  free 
traders  have  small  establishments  not  far  away. 

Fraser  also  established  Fort  St.  James,  Fort  George, 
and  other  posts  in  New  Caledonia,  as  British  Columbia 
was  then  called;  he  discovered  and  explored  Stuart's 
River,  Stuart's  Lake,  and  many  other  streams  and  lakes; 
but  the  achievement  for  which  he  is  mainly  remembered 
was  the  descent  of  the  great  river  that  now  bears  his 
name.  Starting  from  Fort  George  on  May  28,  1907,  with 
four  canoes,  nineteen  voyageurs,  and  two  Indians,  Fraser 
alternately    floated    downstream    and    portaged    round 

186 


LATER  EXPLORERS  187 

frightful  canyons  until  almost  to  the  sea,  when  shortage 
of  food  and  the  hostility  of  the  Indians  caused  him  to 
turn  back. 

Fraser  was  a  restless  adventurer  and  fur  trader,  with- 
out much  education  or  special  mental  endowments;  David 
Thompson  was  also  an  adventurer  and  fur  trader  but  his 
main  interest  was  the  pursuit  of  science,  and  he  was  a 
skilled  astronomer,  geographer,  and  explorer.  He  served 
both  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  and  the  Northwest 
Company,  and  for  sixty-six  years  he  kept  voluminous 
journals  covering  his  experiences  and  observations  from 
1784  to  1850.  These  journals  fill  forty  volumes  of  manu- 
script and  are  still  preserved,  but  unfortunately  they  are 
mostly  dull  and  dry  scientific  data  and  contain  little  of 
interest  except  to  scientists. 

During  his  long  career  Thompson  traveled  over  a 
great  part  of  the  Northwest,  exploring,  surveying,  tak- 
ing astronomical  observations  to  fix  the  latitude  and 
longitude  of  places,  and  mapping  the  country.  All  this 
work  was  carried  on  in  connection  with  his  labors  as  a 
trader,  though,  to  their  credit  be  it  said,  the  Northwest 
Company  seem  to  have  indulged  and  encouraged  his 
efforts,  even  at  times  at  some  loss  to  themselves. 

Among  his  many  achievements  may  be  mentioned  the 
discovery  of  Athabasca  Pass  through  the  Rockies  and  the 
exploration  of  the  headwaters  of  the  Columbia.  In  181 1 
he  descended  the  Columbia  to  its  mouth  and  meant  to 
take  possession  of  the  country  but  found  Americans,  em- 
ployed by  John  Jacob  Astor,  already  established  at 
Astoria.  Despite  the  many  hardships  he  endured  during 
his  long  career,  Thompson  lived  to  the  advanced  age  of 
eighty-seven.  Though  not  so  well  known  by  the  general 
public  as  some  of  his  contemporary  explorers,  he  has  been 


1 88      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

rightly  called  *'  the  greatest  geographer  of  his  day  in 
British  America,  and  the  maker  of  what  was  then  by 
far  its  greatest  map." 

The  big  features  of  northwestern  geography  were  dis- 
covered by  such  men  as  Radisson,  La  Verendrye,  Hearne, 
IMackenzie,  Fraser,  Thompson,  Franklin,  and  Simpson. 
The  minor  details  were  filled  in  by  a  host  of  less  dis- 
tinguished men.  Meanwhile,  great  navigators  like  Van- 
couver, Cook,  and  Bering  explored  the  Pacific  coast. 
Russian  fur  traders  occupied  Alaska,  but  even  when  that 
country  was  purchased  by  the  United  States  in  1867  much 
of  the  vast  interior  was  unexplored.  The  great  gold  rush 
of  the  late  '90's,  however,  led  adventurous  men  to  push 
into  almost  every  nook  and  cranny  both  of  Alaska  and 
of  British  Yukon  in  search  of  the  glittering  "  root  of  all 
evil,"  just  as  forty  years  before  the  discovery  of  gold  in 
British  Columbia  led  to  the  exploration  of  much  of  that 
great  province. 

As  late  as  1890,  however,  there  were  still  vast  areas  in 
the  Dominion  of  Canada — between  one-third  and  one- 
fourth  of  the  whole — that  had  never  been  penetrated  by 
white  men.  That  this  was  so  was  due  mainly  to  the 
great  size  of  the  country,  natural  obstacles,  and  the 
climate. 

Of  the  Barren  Grounds,  for  example,  hardly  more  was 
known  than  in  the  days  of  Franklin  and  Simpson.  In  the 
last  thirty  years,  however,  several  notable  expeditions 
have  been  made  into  that  region.  Of  these  expeditions 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  was  made  by  a  young  Eng- 
lishman named  Warburton  Pike,  who  penetrated  far  into 
the  Barren  Grounds  in  search  of  musk-ox,  an  animal  con- 
cerning which  little  was  then  known.  In  June,  1889,  he 
left  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railroad  at  Calgary  and  trav- 


o 


o 


2 


bxi 


LATER  EXPLORERS  189 

eled  three  hundred  miles  north  past  Edmonton,  then  only 
a  fur  post,  to  Athabasca  Landing,  and  thence  went  by 
water  to  Fort  Resolution  at  the  western  end  of  Great 
Slave  Lake.  There  he  obtained  the  assistance  of  an  old 
half-breed  named  King  Beaulieu  and  of  his  numerous 
family.  The  whole  party,  "  men,  women,  and  children, 
amounting  in  all  to  over  twenty  souls,  or  to  be  more 
practical,  mouths,"  set  out  in  three  birchbark  canoes 
for  the  east  end  of  the  lake.  In  addition,  there  were 
^fifteen  half-starved  dogs. 

The  supply  of  food  was  scanty,  and,  though  some  fish 
and  ducks  were  caught  or  shot  along  the  way,  the  com- 
missariat was  completely  empty  when  Pike,  some  of  the 
half-breed  men,  and  two  of  the  women  left  the  northeast 
shore  of  the  lake  and  struck  off  northward  into  the  inte- 
rior. With  them  they  took  two  canoes,  intending  to 
follow  a  chain  of  detached  lakes  which  led  toward  a  much 
larger  lake  known  as  Lake  Mackay.  They  hoped 
speedily  to  fall  in  with  the  caribou,  which  were  then 
migrating  southward,  but  the  herds  had  not  yet  got  that 
far,  and  for  several  days  they  got  nothing  but  a  few 
whitefish  and  a  wolverine,  an  animal  that  is  eaten  only 
in  starving  times,  as  they  are  scavengers  and  even  grave- 
robbers.  September  13  found  them  encamped  in  a  clump 
of  spruce  on  the  shore  of  the  Lac  du  Rocher.  They  had 
still  found  no  signs  of  the  caribou,  and  had  been  able  to 
catch  no  fish  at  all  in  this  lake. 

"  There  is,"  says  Pike,  "  no  better  camp  than  a  well- 
set-up  lodge  with  a  good  fire  crackling  in  the  middle,  and 
in  this  respect  we  were  comfortable  enough,  but  the 
shortness  of  food  was  telling  rapidly.  We  had  made  no 
pretence  at  eating  all  day,  and  since  leaving  Fond  du 
Lac  [on  Great  Slave  Lake]  had  subsisted  almost  entirely 


190     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

on  tea  and  tobacco,  while  even  on  the  Great  Slave  Lake 
provisions  had  been  none  too  plentiful.  We  passed  the 
evening  smoking,  and,  as  I  have  found  usual  in  these 
cases,  talking  of  all  the  good  things  we  had  ever  eaten, 
while  eyes  shone  in  the  firelight  with  the  brilliancy  pe- 
culiar to  the  early  stages  of  starvation.  Outside  the  lodge 
the  wind  was  moderated;  the  northern  lights,  though  it 
was  still  early  in  the  year,  were  flashing  brightly  across 
the  sky,  and  far  away  in  the  distance  we  could  hear  the 
ominous  howling  of  wolves.  Late  in  the  night  I  awoke, 
and,  on  lighting  my  pipe,  was  greeted  with  the  remark: 
'  Ah!  Monsieur,  une  fois  j'ai  goute  le  pain  avec  le  beurre; 
le  bon  Dieu  a  fait  ces  deux  choses-la  expres  pour  manger 
ensemble.'  "  ("  Ah,  Sir,  once  I  tasted  bread  and  butter; 
God  made  those  things  expressly  to  be  eaten  together.") 
The  remark  was  made  by  old  King  Beaulieu  and  ex- 
pressed his  idea  of  luxurious  eating. 

In  the  morning  they  were  lucky  enough  to  catch  enough 
trout  to  relieve  their  hunger,  while  two  hunters,  who  had 
been  sent  ahead,  returned  late  in  the  evening  with  a  small 
load  of  caribou  meat.  Next  day  they  portaged  across  a 
neck  of  land  ta  Lake  Camsell  and  in  the  afternoon  saw 
and  killed  a  big  bull  caribou.     Says  Pike: 

"  There  was  no  more  thought  of  traveling  that  night, 
and,  while  two  men  were  skinning  and  cutting  up  the 
caribou,  the  others  unloaded  and  carried  ashore  the  canoe, 
lit  a  fire,  and  got  ready  the  kettles  for  a  feast  that  was 
to  make  up  for  all  the  hard  times  just  gone  through. 
There  was  plenty  of  meat  for  everybody  to  gorge  them- 
selves, and  we*  certainly  made  a  night  of  it,  boiling  and 
roasting  till  we  had  very  nearly  finished  the  whole  ani- 
mal. I  could  not  quite  keep  up  with  the  others  at  this 
trial  of  eating  powers,  but  after  a  couple  of  weeks  among 


LATER  EXPLORERS  191 

the  caribou  I  was  fully  able  to  hold  my  own.  We  seemed 
at  length  to  have  found  a  land  of  plenty,  as  ptarmigan 
were  very  numerous,  just  losing  the  last  of  their  pretty 
brown  plumage  and  putting  on  their  white  dresses  to 
match  the  snow,  which  would  soon  drive  them  for  food 
and  shelter  into  the  thick  pine  woods  round  the  shores 
of  the  Great  Slave  Lake." 

For  several  days  they  pushed  northward,  killing  large 
numbers  of  caribou  and  cacheing  the  meat  under  rocks 
or  by  breaking  the  ice  near  the  shore  of  small  lakes  and 
throwing  the  carcasses  into  shoal  water;  this  last  made 
the  safest  cache  of  all,  for  the  ice  would  at  once  freeze 
again  and  would  defy  all  the  efforts  of  the  wolves  or 
wolverines. 

On  the  2  7th  of  September  they  finally  found  and  Pike 
killed  a  big  bull  musk-ox.  They  were  then  on  the  head- 
waters of  the  Coppermine  and  not  far  from  the  site 
of  Fort  Enterprise  and  the  scene  of  the  awful  disasters 
that  befell  Franklin's  first  expedition.  The  weather  was 
growing  colder,  and  they  were  not  provided  with  proper 
clothing,  snowshocs,  or  dog-sledges.    Yet  says  Pike: 

"Nobody  liked  to  be  the  first  to  talk  about  turning 
back,  but  on  reaching  the  top  of  a  low  range  of  hills  and 
seeing  a  flat  desolate  stretch  of  country  lying  to  the  north 
of  us,  with  the  lakes  frozen  up  and  no  signs  of  animals 
or  firewood,  King  turned  to  me  and  said:  '  It  is  not  far 
from  here  that  the  white  men  died  from  cold  and  starva- 
tion at  this  time  of  the  year;  let  us  go  back  before  the 
snow  gets  deep  and  we  are  not  able  to  travel.'  The  old 
man  looked  particularly  tough  at  this  moment;  none  of 
our  faces  were  very  clean,  but  his  was  the  more  remark- 
able, as  the  blood  of  the  last  caribou  that  we  killed  had 
splashed  in  it,  and,  running  down  his  beard,  had  mixed 


192      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

with  his  frozen  breath  and  appeared  in  the  form  of  long 
red  icicles  hanging  from  his  chin.  I  think  he  knew  what 
was  in  my  mind  and  had  an  idea  that  I  was  laughing  at 
him,  for  suddenly  his  quick  temper  got  the  better  of  him 
and  he  broke  into  one  of  those  wild  volleys  of  blasphemy 
that  I  had  heard  him  give  way  to  so  often,  and,  turning 
on  his  heel,  said  that  I  could  do  as  I  liked,  but  he  was 
going  to  make  the  best  of  his  way  back  to  the  lodge." 

The  party  returned,  without  special  adventure  to  Lake 
Camsell,  and  there  Pike,  King  Beaulieu,  and  some  of  the 
women  and  children  remained  for  several  weeks,  the  men 
killing  some  game  but,  for  the  most  part,  taking  things 
rather  easily,  feasting  on  fat  caribou  and  lounging  in  the 
lodges.  In  the  middle  of  October  a  fierce  blizzard  swept 
down  from  the  north  and  covered  the  earth  under  two 
feet  of  snow,  while  every  day  the  daylight  grew  shorter 
and  the  sun  shone  with  less  warmth. 

"  With  the  increasing  depth  of  snow,"  says  Pike, 
"  there  was  a  noticeable  migration  of  life  from  the  Barren 
Ground.  Ptarmigan  came  literally  in  thousands,  while  the 
tracks  of  wolves^  wolverines,  and  Arctic  foxes  made  a 
continuous  network  in  the  snow.  Scattered  bands  of 
caribou  were  almost  always  in  sight  of  the  top  of  the 
ridge  behind  the  camp,  and  increased  in  numbers  till  the 
morning  of  October  20th,  when  little  Baptiste,  who  had 
gone  for  firewood,  woke  us  up  before  daylight  with  the 
cry  of  La  joule!  La  joule!  and  even  in  the  lodge  we 
could  hear  the  curious  clatter  made  by  a  band  of  travel- 
ing caribou.  La  joule  had  really  come,  and  during  its 
passage  of  six  days  I  was  able  to  realize  what  an  extraor- 
dinary number  of  these  animals  still  roam  in  the  Barren 
Ground.  From  the  ridge  we  had  a  splendid  view  of  the 
migration;  all  the  south  shore  of  Mackay  Lake  was  alive 


LATER  EXPLORERS  193 

with  moving  beasts,  while  the  ice  seemed  to  be  dotted 
all  over  with  black  islands,  and  still  away  to  the  north 
shore,  with  the  aid  of  the  glasses,  we  could  see  them 
coming  like  regiments  on  the  march.  In  every  direction 
we  could  hear  the  grunting  noise  that  the  caribou  always 
make  when  traveling;  the  snow  was  broken  into  broad 
roads,  and  I  found  it  useless  to  try  to  estimate  the  num- 
ber that  passed  within  a  few  miles  of  our  encampment. 
We  were  just  on  the  western  edge  of  this  passage,  and 
afterwards  heard  that  a  band  of  Dog-Ribs,  hunting  some 
forty  miles  to  the  west,  were  at  this  very  time  in  the 
very  last  straits  of  starvation,  only  saving  their  lives  by 
a  hasty  retreat  into  the  woods,  where  they  were  lucky 
enough  to  kill  sufficient  meat  to  stave  off  disaster.  .  .  . 
The  caribou,  as  is  usually  the  case  when  they  are  in  large 
numbers,  were  very  tame,  and  on  several  occasions  I 
found  myself  right  in  the  middle  of  a  band  with  a  splendid 
chance  to  pick  out  any  that  seemed  in  good  condition. 
The  rutting  season  was  just  over,  and  as  the  bulls  had 
lost  all  their  fat  and  their  meat  was  too  strong  to  eat, 
only  does  were  killed.  A  good  deal  of  experience  is  neces- 
sary to  tell  the  fat  ones,  but  the  half-breeds  can  tell  age 
and  sex  pretty  well  by  the  growth  of  the  horns;  often  King 
told  me  which  to  shoot  at,  and  it  was  seldom  that  he 
made  a  mistake  in  his  choice." 

Pike  says  that  he  cannot  believe  that  the  buffalo  herds 
on  the  prairies  ever  surpassed  in  numbers  La  joule  of  the 
caribou,  and  this  statement  is  borne  out  by  other  trav- 
elers in  the  Barren  Ground.  Ernest  Thompson  Seton, 
who  made  a  trip  thither  in  1907,  estimated  the  total 
number  of  caribou  in  the  region  at  thirty  millions,  but 
his  figures  are  probably  too  large.  Even  now  these  great 
herds  are  rarely  disturbed  by  white  hunters. 


194     TRAILA^AKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

On  November  nth  Pike,  two  of  the  younger  Beaulieus, 
and  five  Yellow  Knife  Indians  set  out  once  more  with 
six  sleighs,  drawn  by  twenty-four  dogs,  for  the  Barren 
Ground  to  hunt  musk-oxen.  The  meat  caches  that  had 
been  established  along  the  way  helped  the  party  greatly. 
A  few  days'  travel  brought  them  to  the  edge  of  the  last 
timber,  "  the  Land  of  Little  Sticks,"  and  from  there  they 
were  forced  to  haul  a  supply  of  wood  for  use  further  on. 
Nine  days  of  travel  found  them  far  out  in  the  Barren 
Ground,  with  their  wood  almost  exhausted  and  their  food 
all  gone.  The  dogs  were  so  ravenous  that  they  had  to 
be  watched  continually  to  prevent  them  from  eating  their 
harness  and  the  leather  lodge.  Luckily  the  hunters  dis- 
covered two  big  herds  of  musk-oxen,  so  the  party  struck 
camp  and  made  for  the  nearest  herd. 

"  After  traveling  about  three  miles  through  some  rough 
hills,"  says  Pike,  "  we  caught  an  indistinct  view  of  the 
musk-ox,  fully  a  hundred  in  number,  standing  on  a  hill- 
side from  which  most  of  the  snow  had  drifted  away;  and 
then  followed  a  wonderful  scene  such  as  I  believe  no 
white  man  has  ever  looked  on  before.  I  noticed  the  In- 
dians throwing  off  their  mitten-strings,  and  on  inquiring 
the  reason  I  was  told  that  the  musk-ox  would  often  charge 
at  a  bright  color,  particularly  red;  this  story  must,  I 
think,  have  originated  from  the  Whites  in  connection  with 
the  old  red-rag  theory,  and  been  applied  by  the  Indians 
to  the  musk-ox.  I  refused  to  part  with  my  strings,  as 
they  are  useful  in  keeping  the  mittens  from  falling  in  the 
snow  when  the  hand  is  taken  out  to  shoot,  but  I  was 
given  a  wide  berth  while  the  hunt  was  going  on.  Every- 
body started  at  a  run,  but  the  dogs,  which  had  been  let 
out  of  harness,  were  ahead  of  us,  and  the  first  thing  that 
I  made  out  clearly  through  the  driving  snow  was  a  dense 


LATER  EXPLORERS  195 

black  mass  galloping  right  at  us;  the  band  had  proved 
too  big  for  the  dogs  to  hold  and  most  of  the  musk-ox 
had  broken  away.  I  do  not  think  they  knew  anything 
about  men  or  had  the  least  intention  of  charging  us,  but 
they  passed  within  ten  yards,  and  so  frightened  my  com- 
panions that  I  was  the  only  man  to  fire  at  them,  rolling 
over  a  couple.  The  dogs,  however,  were  still  holding  a 
small  lot  at  bay,  and  these  we  slaughtered  without  any 
more  trouble  than  killing  cattle  in  a  yard.  There  is  an 
idea  prevalent  in  the  North  that  on  these  occasions  the 
old  musk-ox  form  into  a  regular  square,  with  the  young 
in  the  center  for  better  protection  against  the  dogs,  which 
they  imagine  to  be  wolves;  but  on  the  two  occasions  when 
I  saw  a  band  held  in  this  manner,  the  animals  were 
standing  in  a  confused  mass,  shifting  their  position  to 
make  a  short  run  at  a  too  impetuous  dog,  and  with  the 
young  ones  as  often  as  not  in  the  front  of  the  line.  There 
was  some  rather  reckless  shooting  going  on,  and  I  was 
glad  to  leave  the  scene  of  slaughter  with  Mario  in  pursuit 
of  stragglers.  Mario,  in  common  with  the  other  Indians, 
had  a  great  horror  of  musk-ox  at  close  quarters,  and  I 
was  much  amused  at  seeing  him  stand  off  at  seventy  yards 
and  miss  an  animal  which  a  broken  back  had  rendered 
incapable  of  rising.  He  said  afterwards  that  the  musk-ox 
were  not  like  other  animals;  they  were  very  cunning, 
could  understand  what  a  man  was  saying  and  play  many 
tricks  to  deceive  him ;  it  was  not  safe  to  go  too  near,  and 
he  would  never  allow  me  to  walk  up  within  a  few  yards 
to  put  in  a  finishing  shot.  After  killing  off  the  cripples, 
we  started  back  to  the  place  where  we  had  left  the 
sleighs,  and,  night  having  added  its  darkness  to  the  drift- 
ing snow,  we  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  finding  camp. 
Mario  confessed  he  was  lost,  and  we  were  thinking  what 


196      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

it  was  best  to  do  for  the  night  when  we  heard  the  ring 
of  an  ax  v/ith  which  somebody  was  splitting  wood  in  the 
lodge.  .  .  .  We  had  eaten  nothing  for  a  long  time,  so 
we  celebrated  our  success  with  a  big  feast  of  meat,  while 
the  dogs  helped  themselves  from  the  twenty  carcasses 
that  were  lying  about.  They  gave  us  very  little  trouble 
in  the  lodge,  as  we  saw  nothing  of  them  till  we  skinned 
the  musk-ox  next  day,  when  two  or  three  round  white 
heaps  of  snow  would  uncurl  themselves  on  the  lee-side 
of  a  half-eaten  body." 

Late  the  next  afternoon,  while  the  others  were  setting 
up  the  lodge.  Pike  "  climbed  to  the  top  of  a  high  butte 
to  have  a  look  at  the  surrounding  country;  the  hill  was 
so  steep  that  I  had  to  take  off  my  snowshoes  to  struggle 
to  the  summit,  and  was  rewarded  for  my  trouble  by  a 
good  view  of  probably  the  most  complete  desolation  that 
exists  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  There  is  nothing  strik- 
ing or  grand  in  the  scenery,  no  big  mountains  or  water- 
falls, but  a  monotonous  snow-covered  waste,  without  tree 
or  shrub;  rarely  trodden  by  the  foot  of  the  wandering 
Indian.  A  deathly  stillness  hangs  over  all,  and  the  op- 
pressive loneliness  weighs  over  the  spectator  till  he  is 
glad  to  shout  aloud  to  break  the  awful  spell  of  solitude. 
Such  is  the  land  of  the  musk-ox  in  snowtime;  here  this 
strange  animal  finds  abundance  of  its  favorite  lichens,  and 
defies  the  cold  that  has  driven  every  other  living  thing  to 
the  woods  for  shelter." 

Later  the  party  attacked  two  other  bands  of  musk-ox 
and  killed  so  many  that  the  sleds  were  loaded  down  with 
heads  and  robes.  The  hunters  then  turned  homeward, 
and  after  many  hardships  Pike  reached  Great  Slave  Lake. 
He  spent  the  remainder  of  the  winter  at  Fort  Resolution, 
making  an  occasional  hunt  after  caribou  or  wood  buffalo. 


LATER  EXPLORERS  197 

In  the  spring,  with  Mackinlay,  the  head  of  that  post,  a 
white  man  named  Murdo  Mackay,  and  a  party  of  half- 
breeds  and  Indians,  he  set  out  northward  once  more,  and 
succeeded  in  descending  the  Great  Fish  River  as  far  as 
Beechey  Lake,  where  they  found  traces  of  Eskimos.  On 
this  trip  Pike  saw  many  interesting  sights  and  experienced 
many  adventures,  but  there  is  space  to  tell  of  only  one 
more  musk-ox  hunt.  One  day  along  the  Great  Fish 
River  an  Indian  spied  a  large  band  of  these  animals,  and 
as  the  women  were  badly  in  need  of  hides  with  which  to 
make  moccasins,  a  hunt  was  arranged  in  a  fashion  that 
Pike  had  not  seen  before. 

"  Most  of  the  guns  crossed  the  river,  and  a  spot  was 
selected  for  the  slaughter  just  where  the  stream  broad- 
ened out  into  a  small  lake;  at  right  angles  to  the  river 
mounds  of  stone  and  moss  were  put  up  at  a  few  yards' 
distance  from  each  other,  ornamented  with  coats,  belts, 
and  gun-covers,  and  behind  the  outside  mound  Capot 
Blanc  took  up  his  position.  A  steep  hill  ran  parallel  with 
the  stream  about  two  hundred  yards  away,  and  along  this 
guns  were  posted  at  intervals,  with  the  intention  of  head- 
ing the  musk-ox  toward  the  water.  Noel  and  Mario,  sup- 
posed to  be  the  two  best  runners,  were  to  make  a  long 
round  and  start  the  band  in  our  direction;  I  was  sta- 
tioned with  three  other  guns  among  some  broken  rocks 
on  the  south  side  of  the  river,  just  opposite  the  barrier; 
and  orders  were  given  that  no  shot  should  be  fired  till  the 
musk-ox  took  to  the  water. 

"  It  was  a  most  interesting  scene,  and  I  would  not  will- 
ingly have  changed  places  with  any  of  the  loyal  Canadians 
who  were  at  this  time  celebrating  the  anniversary  of 
Dominion  Day,  with  much  rye  whiskey,  a  thousand  miles 
to  the  southward.     I  had  plenty  of  time  to  admire  the 


198      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

surrounding  landscape,  and  the  sunset  that  lit  up  the 
snow-drifts  on  each  side  of  the  river;  when  suddenly 
over  the  opposite  ridge  appeared  the  horns  of  a  band  of 
caribou,  and  for  a  moment  the  leader  was  outlined 
against  the  sky  as  he  paused  to  look  at  the  strarge 
preparations  going  on  in  the  valley  below.  Behind  me 
a  ptarmigan,  perched  on  a  rock,  crowed  defiance;  but 
there  was  no  other  sound,  except  the  rush  of  water  and 
the  occasional  grinding  of  an  ice-pan  dislodged  from 
some  small  lake  in  the  course  of  the  stream.  Fully  an 
hour  we  sat  among  the  rocks,  and  were  beginning  to  think 
that  the  hunt  had  miscarried,  when  we  heard  a  distant 
shouting  far  down  the  valley,  and  the  next  moment  caught 
sight  of  a  scurrying  black  mass  crossing  a  spur  of  the  hill 
close  to  the  river's  bank.  The  men  posted  along  the 
ridge  took  up  the  cry  as  the  musk-ox  passed  them,  and 
joined  in  the  chase;  soon  the  animals  came  to  the  barrier, 
and  pulled  up  short  at  the  apparition,  while,  to  increase 
the  alarm,  the  hoary  head  of  Capot  Blanc  arose  from 
behind  a  mound  of  rocks  right  in  front  of  them.  This 
was  the  critical  moment,  and  they  would  certainly  have 
taken  to  the  water  and  been  at  the  mercy  of  their  pur- 
suers but  for  an  untimely  shot  that  caused  them  to  break, 
and  I  was  not  sorry  to  see  that  several  of  the  band 
escaped.  I  had  had  a  splendid  view  till  now,  as  the 
musk-ox  halted  within  twenty  yards  of  me,  but  we  were 
forced  to  lie  low  when  the  shooting  began,  as  the  bullets 
were  rattling  freely  among  the  rocks  in  which  we  were 
hiding.  We  did  no  shooting  on  our  side  of  the  river, 
except  to  finish  off  a  couple  that  took  to  the  water;  seven 
were  killed  in  all,  six  cows  and  a  calf  about  a  month  old; 
there  were  no  bulls  in  the  band,  and  from  what  I  after- 
wards saw  they  seemed  to  keep  separate  from  the  cows 


LATER  EXPLORERS  i99 

during  the  summer.    A  solitary  old  bull  is  often  met  with 
at  this  time  of  the  year. 

"  When  the  hunt  was  over,  I  inquired  the  meaning  of 
the  shouting  that  had  been  kept  up  so  continuously 
throughout  the  drive,  and  was  informed  that  this  was 
necessary  to  let  the  musk-ox  know  which  way  to  run.  At 
starting  they  had  shouted:  '  Oh,  musk-ox,  there  is  a  bar- 
rier planted  for  you  down  there,  where  the  river  joins 
the  little  lake;  when  you  reach  it  take  to  the  water,  there 
are  men  with  guns  on  both  sides,  and  so  we  shall  kill 
you  all ';  when  the  men  are  out  of  breath,  they  shout 
to  the  musk-ox  to  stop,  and,  after  they  have  rested,  to  go 
on  again.  These  animals  are  said  to  understand  every 
word  of  the  Yellow  Knife  language,  though  it  seems 
strange  that  they  do  not  make  use  of  the  information 
they  receive  to  avoid  danger  instead  of  obeying  orders. 
The  partial  failure  of  the  hunt  was  attributed  to  the  fact 
that  Moise  had  called  across  the  river  to  me  in  French, 
and  the  musk-ox  had  not  been  able  to  understand  this 
strange  language." 

After  his  return  to  Fort  Resolution  Pike  ascended 
Peace  River  to  the  Great  Canyon,  and  thence  late  in 
November  set  out  in  a  canoe  with  two  white  men,  an 
Indian,  and  a  half-breed  to  go  up  the  Peace  through  the 
Rocky  Mountains  and  follow  its  southern  headwater, 
Parsnip  River,  to  Fort  McLcod,  intending  to  go  from 
there  to  Vancouver.  But  the  river  froze  before  they 
reached  Finlay  Forks,  and  while  attempting  to  ascend 
the  Parsnip  on  foot  they  lost  their  way  and  went  up 
Nation  River.  After  weeks  of  suffering  from  cold  and 
starvation  in  this  wilderness  of  mountains — a  region 
which  I  have  myself  twice  passed  through — they  finally 
made  their  way  back,  in  an  almost  dying  condition,  to 


200     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

a  trading  post  at  the  Canyon.  From  there,  later  in  the 
winter,  Pike  traveled  overland  to  Edmonton  and  Calgary. 

Pike  related  his  experiences  in  a  book  entitled  The 
Barrcji  Ground  of  Northern  Canada.  It  is  a  classic  of 
adventure  and  exploration  in  the  Canadian  wilderness, 
and  is  to  me  the  most  fascinating  book  of  all  the  many 
that  have  been  published  on  this  subject.  A  few  years 
after  his  return  from  the  Barren  Ground  Pike  made  a 
trip  up  the  Stikine  River,  crossed  over  to  the  headwaters 
of  the  Liard,  and  thence  to  those  of  the  Yukon,  and 
descended  that  mighty  river  almost  to  its  mouth.  His 
adventures  on  this  long  journey  are  set  forth  in  Through 
the  Sub-Arctic  Forest. 

In  1893  J-  S.  Tyrrell  and  J.  W.  Tyrrell,  in  the  interest 
of  the  Canadian  government,  traveled  from  Lake  Atha- 
basca to  Hudson  Bay  and  came  near  starving  to  death  on 
the  stormy  western  coast  of  Hudson  Bay.  Their  experi- 
ences are  related  in  a  book  called  Across  the  Sub-Arctics 
of  Canada.  Two  years  later  Caspar  Whitney  made  an 
adventurous  winter  journey  in  search  of  musk-ox,  and 
in  graphic  language  he  describes  his  experiences  in  Ojt 
Snow-shoes  to  the  Barren  Grounds.  In  1907  Ernest 
Thompson  Seton,  the  well-known  naturalist  and  artist, 
and  Edward  Preble,  a  scientist  connected  with  the  United 
States  Biological  Survey,  penetrated  into  the  region  north 
of  Great  Slave  Lake,  and  Seton  has  WTitten  in  a  most 
interesting  way  of  the  caribou  migrations  and  other  fea- 
tures of  the  region  in  his  The  Arctic  Prairies.  Several 
other  hunters  and  explorers  have  traveled  in  the  Barren 
Grounds,  but  in  many  respects  the  most  remarkable  trips 
thither  are  those  described  by  David  Hanbury  in  his 
Sport  and  Travel  in  the  Northland  of  Canada. 

Hanbury  repeatedly  crossed  the  Barren  Grounds  be- 


LATER  EXPLORERS  201 

tween  Great  Slave  Lake  and  Hudson  Bay,  following  dur- 
ing part  of  the  way  the  course  of  the  Arkilinik  River, 
which  he  considered  much  the  easiest  route.  In  February, 
1902,  with  two  white  men  and  some  Eskimos,  he  left 
Hudson  Bay,  ascended  Chesterfield  Inlet  on  the  ice, 
crossed  over  to  Great  Fish  River  and  followed  that  stream 
to  its  mouth,  taking  with  him  two  light  canoes  drawn 
on  dog-sledges,  traveled  westward  along  the  Arctic  coast, 
first  with  sledges  and  then  in  the  canoes,  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Coppermine,  ascended  that  river  to  above  the  Bloody 
Falls,  and  then  followed  to  its  headwaters  a  small  western 
tributary  known  as  Kendall  River.  There  the  Eskimos 
turned  back,  while  the  three  white  men  crossed  the  divide 
to  Great  Bear  Lake  and  ultimately  reached  Fort  Norman. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  of  this  long  journey  is 
that  in  making  it  Hanbury,  already  an  experienced  and 
rsourceful  Northland  traveler,  did  not  attempt  to  carry 
much  provision  with  him  but  lived  off  the  country.  Hav- 
ing won  the  confidence  of  the  Eskimos,  he  was  able  to 
make  use  of  their  unrivaled  knowledge  of  how  to  obtain 
subsistence.  Though  more  than  once  entirely  out  of 
food,  the  party  was  never  actually  starving,  and  the 
white  men  reached  civilization  in  good  condition.  In 
fact,  Hanbury's  skill  as  a  traveler  compares  very  favor- 
ably with  that  of  Simpson  and  Rae.  His  book  is'  full  of 
suggestions  as  to  methods,  and  Vilhjalmur  Stefansson 
says  that  he  obtained  more  aid  from  it  than  from  all 
other  books  combined.  Stefansson  himself  attained  a 
proficiency  in  this  kind  of  travel  that  has  perhaps  never 
been  equaled,  but  his  remarkable  work,  both  as  an  ex- 
plorer and  an  ethnologist,  is  too  fresh  in  the  public  mind 
to  need  description  here. 

In  the  vast  territory  west  of  the  Mackenzie  the  main 


202      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

geographical  features — the  mountain  chains,  the  great 
rivers  and  lakes — were  slowly  ascertained  by  fur  traders 
and  other  explorers.  In  later  years  notable  work  in  this, 
as  in  other  regions,  was  done  by  the  Canadian  Geo- 
logical Survey,  particularly  under  Dr.  George  M. 
Dawson,  a  distinguished  scientist,  who  himself  conducted 
several  expeditions.  In  the  last  thirty  years  enthusiastic 
mountain  climbers — some  of  them  from  England  and 
the  United  States — have  done  much  to  explore  the 
mighty  maze  of  mountains  in  southern  British  Columbia, 
and  the  Canadian  Alpine  Club  makes  an  expedition  to 
the  region  every  year. 

As  early  as  1840  Robert  Campbell  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company  ascended  the  Liard  River  to  its  head- 
waters and  crossed  over  to  the  Pelly,  one  of  the  tribu- 
taries of  the  Yukon.  Eight  years  later  he  established  a 
fur  post  called  Fort  Selkirk  at  the  junction  of  the  Lewes 
and  Pelly.  This  post  was  so  remote  that  seven  years 
would  elapse  between  the  time  trade  goods  left  London 
for  Fort  Selkirk  and  the  time  that  the  furs  obtained  in 
exchange  arrived. 

Notwithstanding  the  many  journeys  of  fur  traders  and 
other  explorers^  there  still  exist  in  the  vast  Canadian 
Northland  several  large  primeval  areas  that  have  never 
been  pressed  by  the  feet  of  white  men. 

Having  been  born  with  a  fondness  for  penetrating  into 
the  unknown  "  beyond  the  farthest  camping  ground  and 
the  last  tin  can,"  the  author  in  191 6  made  an  attempt  to 
explore  one  of  these  areas,  namely,  that  lying  between 
the  headwaters  of  the  Peace  and  Liard  rivers.  This 
area,  according  to  a  writer  in  the  American  Geographic 
Magazine,  had  a  total  extent  of  about  twenty-eight  thou- 
sand square  miles.    That  so  large  a  region  at  so  late  a 


LATER  EXPLORERS  203 

date  had  never  been  explored  seems  incredible.  But  it 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  British  Columbia,  in  which 
the  region  lies,  is  larger  than  some  empires.  Twenty 
Switzerlands  could  be  set  down  in  it,  and  there  would  still 
be  room  for  England,  Scotland,  and  two  or  three  other 
countries.  Almost  the  whole  of  it  is  one  mighty  mass  of 
rugged  mountains,  and,  except  where  there  are  railroads 
or  navigable  rivers,  the  difficulties  attending  travel  are 
tremendous.  Dangerous  rapids  and  mighty  canyons  bar 
the  way  on  most  of  the  streams,  and  even  along  those  that 
can  be  navigated  with  comparative  ease  the  traveler  be- 
gins to  meet  with  obstacles  the  moment  he  attempts  to 
penetrate  the  country  beyond  the  banks.  Furthermore, 
the  summer  season  is  short,  and  expeditions  almost  al- 
ways travel  hurriedly  in  order  to  avoid  being  caught  in 
the  far  interior  by  the  freeze-up.  In  consequence,  even 
along  such  a  stream  as  Peace  River,  the  main  course  of 
which  has  been  known  for  over  a  century,  there  exist 
within  a  few  miles  of  the  stream  areas  never  penetrated 
by  white  men;  this  is  true  even  of  that  stretch  of  the 
river  where  it  bursts  through  the  Rockies.  As  for  rail- 
roads, there  were  none  in  either  northern  or  central 
British  Columbia  until  the  building  of  the  Grand  Trunk 
Pacific,  completed  in  1913.  In  northern  Alberta  a  rail- 
road running  from  Edmonton  reached  the  lower  Peace 
early  in  191 6.  By  using  the  first  of  these  roads  going  in 
and  the  second  coming  out  I  was  able  to  shorten  my  trip 
by  about  eight  hundred  miles — to  travel  by  rail  through 
regions  that  hitherto  could  only  be  traversed  with  pack- 
train  or  canoe  in  summer  and  dog-sledge  in  winter.  But 
even  with  this  saving  the  canoe  trip  to  and  from  the 
unexplored  region  was  almost  a  thousand  miles  long. 
With    a    resourceful    French    Canadian    named    Joe 


204      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Lavoie  I  left  the  Grand  Trunk  Pacific  Railway  at  the 
little  station  of  Hansard  on  the  upper  Fraser.  Our  outfit 
consisted  of  rifles,  light  tents,  provisions,  blankets,  and  a 
light  canvas-covered  canoe.  Descending  the  Fraser 
thirty-five  miles  to  Giscome  Portage,  we  crossed  the 
eight-mile  divide  to  Summit  Lake,  and  thence  by  Crooked 
River,  Lake  McLeod,  Pack  River,  and  the  Parsnip  we 
floated  down  to  the  point  where  the  Parsnip  is  joined  by 
the  Finlay  from  the  north,  thereby  forming  the  mighty 
Peace,  which  at  once  proceeds  to  break  its  way  through 
the  black  mountain  wall  of  the  Rockies  toward  the 
Mackenzie  and  the  Arctic  sea. 

Thirteen  days  of  poling,  tracking,  and  portaging  up 
Finley  River  brought  us  to  the  mouth  of  the  Quadacha 
or  White  Water,  a  considerable  tributary  flowing  in  from 
the  northeast.  As  early  as  1824  John  Finlay,  in  the 
interest  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  had  ascended  the 
main  river  to  its  source,  and  in  more  recent  years  ex- 
plorers, prospectors,  and  trappers  had  also  gone  as  far 
as  the  Long  Canyon  or  farther,  but  no  white  man  had 
been  any  distance  up  the  Quadacha,  and  it  was  around 
the  headwaters  of  this  stream  that  the  unexplored  region 
lay  that  we  wished  to  penetrate.  A  glance  at  its  water 
was  enough  to  convince  me  that  mighty  glaciers  lay  about 
its  head,  for  the  flood  it  poured  into  the  clear  waters  of 
the  Finlay  was  almost  as  white  as  milk.  Lavoie  was  of 
opinion  that  the  color  was  due  to  "  white  cut-banks,"  but 
past  experience  enabled  me  to  know  that  it  was  caused 
by  big  glaciers  ("  rock  mills "  one  might  call  them) 
grinding  up  silt. 

The  Quadacha  looked  so  swift  and  turbid  that  we  left 
the  canoe  and  most  of  our  outfit  cached  on  an  island 
not  far  from  the  mouth  and  struck  out  overland  with 


LATER  EXPLORERS  205 

pack-sacks.  The  country  we  traversed  was  a  terrible 
tangle  of  mountains,  the  lower  slopes  of  which  were  cum- 
bered with  down  timber.  We  had  hoped  to  eke  out  our 
provisions  by  killing  game  or  catching  fish,  as  we  had 
usually  been  able  to  do  hitherto,  but  in  this  we  failed. 
After  five  days  of  weary  work  we  finally  reached  a  point 
where  the  Quadacha  forked;  there,  as  our  food  supply 
was  running  short,  we  decided  to  turn  back.  Luckily 
next  day  we  climbed  a  high  peak  from  which  we  had  a 
magnificent  view  over  the  unexplored  country.  Far  to 
the  northeastward  we  beheld  a  magnificent  mountain, 
much  taller  than  any  other  in  that  region,  and  an  im- 
mense ice  field,  certainly  one  of  the  largest  in  the  whole 
Rocky  Mountain  system.  Both  of  these  I  later  named 
after  Lloyd  George,  the  great  British  statesman. 

After  returning  to  our  canoe  we  ascended  the  Finlay 
to  beyond  Fox  River  and  penetrated  the  region  north  of 
what  is  known  as  the  Long  Canyon.  Again  we  had  no  suc- 
cess hunting  and  presently  found  ourselves  seven  days' 
journey  from  our  canoe  and  cache  with  only  a  scanty 
two  days'  supply  of  "  grub."  It  looked  as  if  we  might 
go  hungry  before  we  could  get  back  to  our  base,  but  the 
following  day  I  was  lucky  enough  to  kill  a  fine  fat  black 
bear  and  the  next  day  two  Stone's  mountain  sheep,  or 
black  sheep,  so  that  we  had  an  abundance  of  good  meat. 
And  I  might  add  here  that  "  mountain  mutton  "  is  the 
best  game  meat  I  have  ever  tasted. 

On  my  return  home — we  came  out  by  way  of  the  lower 
Peace  and  Peace  River  Landing — the  story  of  the  trip 
appeared  in  two  numbers  of  Scribner's  Magazine  and  in 
more  extended  form  in  a  book  entitled  On  the  Head- 
waters of  Peace  River. 

The  trip  had  been  a  long  and  exhausting  one,  but  the 


2o6     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

memory  of  that  magnificent  mountain  and  glittering  ice- 
field filled  my  thoughts  by  day  and  my  dreams  by  night 
until  the  call  proved  too  strong  to  be  resisted.  One  day 
in  early  August  of  191 9  found  me  again  alighting  from 
a  Grand  Trunk  Pacific  train  at  Hansard  prepared  to  set 
out  once  more  on  the  quest  by  the  same  route. 

My  companion  was  Alban  P.  Chesterfield,  a  young 
Detroit  surgeon,  who  had  had  considerable  experience  in 
the  wilds  of  Ontario  but  who  was  making  his  first  trip 
amid  high  mountains.  At  Summit  Lake  wc  had  the  good 
fortune  to  secure  the  services  of  George  Holben,  a  husky 
young  trapper,  prospector,  and  Indian  trader  whom  I  had 
met  at  McLeod  Lake  on  the  previous  trip.  From  Summit 
Lake  as  far  as  Finlay  Forks  we  also  had  the  company 
of  a  character  well-known  in  the  Hudson's  Hope  region, 
namely,  "  Dad  "  Brennan,  formerly  a  cook  in  the  cow 
country  of  Montana  but  hailing  originally  from  the 
Ozark  hills.  As  Brennan  had  lost  one  eye  and  could  not 
see  any  too  well  out  of  the  other,  he  was  glad  to  have 
one  of  us  ride  in  his  canoe  and  read  the  water  for  him; 
an  arrangement  that  was  also  helpful  to  us,  for  our 
eighteen-foot  canvas-covered  canoe  was  heavily  laden 
with  food  and  other  impedimenta. 

We  had  started  with  an  outboard  motor,  which  we  ex- 
pected would  prove  very  helpful  on  the  long  river  trip, 
but  it  did  not  run  properly  at  the  beginning,  and  we  soon 
had  the  misfortune  to  wet  the  magneto,  after  which  the 
thing  was  altogether  useless,  so  we  left  it  at  Summit  Lake. 
This  was  doubly  unfortunate,  for  not  only  was  the  trip 
rendered  much  more  laborious  but  we  moved  more  slowly 
and  lost  valuable  time. 

We  floated  rather  leisurely  down  Crooked  River,  a  de- 
lectable little  stream  where  we  caught  many  rainbow  and 


LATER  EXPLORERS  207 

Dolly  Varden  trout  and  added  an  occasional  grouse  or 
duck  to  the  larder.  It  was  vitally  necessary  thus  to  sup- 
plement our  commissariat,  for  the  distance  to  be  traveled 
was  so  great  that  it  was  impossible  to  take  with  us  suf- 
ficient food  for  the  trip.  In  fact,  it  may  be  said  that 
we  fished  and  sliot  our  way  to  Mt.  Lloyd  George. 

Late  one  afternoon  on  the  Parsnip  while  riding  in  the 
bow  of  the  foremost  canoe  I  happened  to  spy  on  a  low- 
cut  bank  far  ahead  a  black  object  that  presently  resolved 
itself  into  a  bear.  Luckily  the  wind  was  favorable,  and 
bruin  was  busily  engrossed  in  the  work  of  raking  open 
ant  hills  and  licking  up  the  inmates  as  they  crawled  over 
the  ruins  of  their  homes.  George  steered  the  canoe  close 
inshore,  and  we  drifted  quietly  down  upon  the  unsus- 
pecting plantigrade.  When  we  were  within  seventy 
yards,  the  bear  suddenly  looked  up.  There  was  a  thicket 
of  willows  close  by,  and  knowing  that  in  a  moment  he 
would  bolt  out  of  sight,  I  let  drive  with  my  sporting 
Springfield.  The  bullet  landed,  but  the  bear  half  fell, 
half  sprang  into  the  thicket.  In  a  few  moments  Doodle, 
George's  little  twelve-pound  fox  terrier,  and  I  were  ashore, 
but  the  soft-point  bullet  had  done  its  work  well,  and 
another  shot  was  not  required. 

Doodle,  who  was  only  a  pup,  was  wildly  excited.  It 
was  his  first  opportunity  to  chew  up  and  shake  a  bear, 
and  he  joyously  made  the  most  of  it!  Holben  and  I 
dragged  the  animal  down  on  the  beach,  and  just  then  the 
second  canoe  arrived.  Kinky,  Brennan's  little  fox  terrier 
bitch,  at  once  sprang  ashore  and  came  rushing  up  to  see 
what  Doodle  was  barking  about.  But  when  she  saw  the 
bear  and  got  his  wind,  her  stump  of  a  tail  went  down  and 
she  hastily  took  refuge  at  the  farther  end  of  her  master's 
canoe.    However,  we  managed  to  convince  her  that  there 


2o8      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

was  no  danger,  and  ultimately  she  joined  Doodle  in  the 
exciting  work  of  shaking  the  bear.  For  half  an  hour 
those  little  dogs  kept  biting  and  gnawing  away,  while 
their  shrill  ki-ki-ing  resounded  over  the  river  and  up 
through  the  spruce-covered  hills.  Finally,  with  tongues 
lolling  out,  they  lay  down  beside  the  kill,  with  satisfac- 
tion written  over  their  eager  little  faces. 

When  we  reached  Finlay  River  we  found  it  in  flood, 
which  meant  that  what  would  have  been  a  hard  task  at 
best  would  be  more  than  ever  difficult.  But  we  cut  down 
our  load,  and  for  fourteen  days,  through  a  changing 
panorama  of  high  mountains,  we  bucked  the  current  with 
paddles,  poles,  and  tracking-line.  As  Holben  and  the 
doctor  were  both  better  canoe-men  than  I,  most  of  the 
tracking  fell  to  me.  When  not  pulling  on  the  rope,  I 
often  trudged  along  the  shore,  and,  with  a  little  "  game- 
getter,"  which  had  both  a  rifle-  and  a  shot-barrel,  man- 
aged to  kill  many  of  the  willow-grouse  and  fool-hens 
which  Doodle  and  I  flushed. 

On  the  fifth  day  up  the  Finlay  the  doctor  had  a 
splendid  shot  at  a  brown  bear,  but  missed  it  completely. 
Overeagerness,  failure  to  take  into  account  the  way  the 
animal  was  standing,  and  the  fact  that  the  hunter  was 
shooting  at  a  bear  for  the  first  time  probably  accounted 
for  the  miss,  but  Holben,  who  was  inclined  to  be  facetious, 
declared  it  was  because  the  doctor  did  not  take  into 
account  "  the  size  of  the  bank  around  the  mark."  The 
miss  was  all  the  funnier  because  the  doctor  not  half  an 
hour  before  had  been  expatiating  upon  what  he  could  do 
to  a  bear  at  three  hundred  yards.  He  did  not  hear  the 
last  of  the  episode  until  he  duplicated  the  performance 
on  the  return  trip.  After  that  the  subject  became  too 
tragic  to  be  referred  to  lightly. 


LATER  EXPLORERS  209 

At  Fort  Grahame,  the  little  Hudson  Bay  post  sixty 
miles  up  the  Finlay,  I  renewed  my  acquaintance  with 
Fox,  the  half-breed  trader  in  charge,  and  also  with  a 
number  of  Indians  I  had  met  three  years  before.  My 
introduction  to  these  Indians  on  the  previous  occasion 
had  not  been  an  auspicious  one,  for  I  had  shot  a  brown 
bear  within  hearing  of  the  post,  and  when  we  pulled  up 
to  the  landing,  the  sight  of  the  hide  and  hindquarters 
brought  a  scowl  to  the  face  of  every  aborigine  who  was 
squatting  on  the  bank  watching  us.  However,  we  told 
the  Indians  where  they  could  find  the  rest  of  the  meat 
and  this  and  a  few  gifts  helped  to  establish  friendly 
relations. 

These  Indians  are  of  the  Siccanni  tribe.  There  are  now 
about  sixty  of  them,  and  they  hunt  and  trap  over  a  region 
as  large  as  Indiana.  They  buy  guns,  ammunition,  some 
summer  clothing,  tea,  sugar,  tobacco,  and  a  few  other 
articles  from  the  post,  but  their  main  dependence  for  a 
livelihood  is  upon  the  game  they  kill.  Moose  is  their 
staff  of  life,  with  rabbit  standing  second.  They  also  slay 
bears,  sheep,  goats,  caribou,  and  whistlers;  these  last  are 
a  sort  of  marmot,  whose  fat  flesh  is  highly  esteemed  and 
out  of  whose  skins  the  Indians  make  warm  robes.  Most 
of  the  rabbits  are  caught  by  the  squaws  in  snares,  and  it 
sometimes  happens  that  a  camp  has  nothing  whatever  to 
eat  except  rabbit  meat.  This  state  of  affairs  is  consid- 
ered the  next  worst  thing  to  starving,  as  rabbit  is  not 
very  toothsome  as  a  steady  diet  and  seems  to  have  little 
sustaining  power.  However,  rabbits  are  better  than 
nothing,  and  when  they  are  scarce,  which  happens  every 
seven  years,  when  most  of  them  die  of  a  mysterious 
disease,  both  lynxes  and  Siwash  are  likely  to  be  frequently 
on  short  commons. 


2IO     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Among  the  Indians  at  Grahame  was  an  old  squaw 
whose  picture  I  had  taken  surreptitiously  at  Fox  River 
on  the  previous  trip.  I  had  sent  the  picture  to  her  through 
the  trader  and  had  also  sent  him  a  copy  of  Scribner's, 
in  which  the  picture  was  reproduced.  Fox  had  shown 
the  magazine  to  her  son  and  had  said:  "Your  mother's 
picture  will  now  be  seen  by  the  people  of  all  the  world." 
This  had  seemed  very  fine  to  the  aboriginal  mind,  and  I 
now  found  everybody  ready  to  pose  with  the  utmost 
willingness. 

These  Indians  are  so  remote  from  civilization  that  they 
had  escaped  an  epidemic  of  measles  which  the  winter  be- 
fore had  wiped  out  half  the  tribe  at  McLeod's  Lake,  and 
the  influenza,  which  had  killed  most  of  the  bucks  among 
the  Beaver  Indians  in  the  Hudson's  Hope  country  on  the 
plains  side  of  the  Rockies. 

A  few  days  later,  a  little  below  the  mouth  of  a  creek 
called  Paul's  Branch,  v/e  met  two  moose-hide  boats 
loaded  down  with  Chief  Pierre's  family.  Aleck  and  Dan, 
whom  I  had  met  three  years  before,  recognized  me  when 
afar  off  and  greeted  me  as  an  old  friend.  Both  are  intel- 
ligent, energetic  fellows  and  splendid  moose-hunters, 
about  the  highest  ty^e  of  Indian  I  have  met.  We  had 
a  friendly  powwow  of  an  hour  or  so  on  the  beach,  and 
there  was  much  picture  taking. 

When  I  was  in  the  country  before,  all  these  Indians 
lived  in  tents,  the  year  round,  but  Aleck  told  us  proudly 
that  he  had  built  a  cabin  at  the  mouth  of  the  Ackie.  His 
brother  Dan  was  anxious  to  be  the  first  of  his  people  to 
visit  the  outside  world  and  see  steamboats,  railroads,  and 
automobiles,  of  which  he  had  heard  wonderful  tales. 
But  there  was  one  thing  that  troubled  him. 

"  When  I  get  in  white  man's  country,"  said  he,  "  must 


LATER  EXPLORERS  211 

I  carry  my  grub  and  when  I  get  hungry  stop,  build  fire, 
and  cook  a  feed?  " 

At  noon  of  the  fourteenth  day  from  the  Forks  and  the 
twenty-fourth  from  the  railroad  we  at  last  came  in  sight 
of  the  milky  water  of  the  Quadacha,  and  here,  in  a  sense, 
the  trip  really  began.  Three  years  before  the  river  had 
looked  so  forbidding  that  Lavoie  and  I  had  cached  our 
stuff  a  few  hundred  yards  upstream  and  had  struck  off 
into  the  unexplored  region  with  pack-sacks.  But  I  was 
determined  this  time  to  work  the  canoe  up  the  river  as 
far  as  possible  and  to  get  our  base  of  supplies  as  near  our 
goal  as  was  practicable.  I  knew  that  some  stretches  of 
the  stream  were  navigable,  but  there  were  other  stretches 
I  had  not  seen  in  which  there  might  be  all  sorts  of 
obstacles.  So  far  as  I  am  aware  no  white  man  had  ever 
even  attempted  to  ascend  the  stream,  but  Aleck  had  told 
us  that  the  Indians  sometimes  came  down  it  on  rafts. 

Navigation  proved  bad  enough  but  better  than  I  had 
feared.  At  the  point  where  the  stream  issues  from  the 
mountains  it  flows  between  high  rocky  walls,  but  in  this 
canyon  the  current,  though  very  swift,  was  not  impos- 
sible. By  dint  of  paddling,  poling,  and  almost  constant 
tracking  we  managed  after  a  little  less  than  three  days' 
work  to  reach  the  forks,  which  had  marked  the  limit  of 
my  progress  overland  in  191 6.  On  the  way  we  had 
skirted  the  base  of  the  mountain  called  by  me  in  my 
book  "  Observation  Peak,"  but  renamed  by  the  Canadian 
Geographical  Board  "  Mount  Haworth."  It  is  one  of  the 
ugliest,  most  God-forsaken  peaks  in  all  Canada! 

As  in  191 6,  the  east  fork  was  the  whiter  stream,  and 
up  it  we  turned  our  canoe,  for  I  then  supposed  that  at  its 
headwaters  we  would  find  Mt.  Lloyd  George  and  the 
big  ice-field.    The  stream  soon  proved  very  bad  indeed. 


212      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Repeatedly  we  had  to  carry  around  great  log- jams  or  cut 
our  way  through  them,  but  still  we  made  steady  progress. 
However,  late  in  the  afternoon  of  September  8,  our  fifth 
day  on  the  Quadacha,  the  mountains  pinched  in  on  the 
river,  the  current  grew  swifter,  and  we  heard  ahead  the 
roar  of  rapids. 

As  we  had  ascended  the  Quadacha  game  signs  had  be- 
come more  and  more  abundant,  due  to  the  fact  that  we 
were  getting  out  of  the  range  of  the  Indians.  The  bars 
were  covered  with  moose,  caribou,  and  bear  tracks,  and 
beneath  a  great  limestone  cliff  at  the  forks  we  had  seen 
goat  tracks.  On  one  bar  I  had  seen  where  a  big  wolf 
had  pulled  down  and  eaten  a  calf  moose  that  had  wan- 
dered too  far  from  its  mother's  protecting  care.  And 
now,  just  as  it  was  coming  time  to  camp,  I  discovered 
a  great  muddy  hole  in  the  river  bank  that  had  been  dug 
out  by  moose  which  came  there  to  drink  a  sort  of  min- 
eral water  that  trickled  out.  This  water  smelled  and 
tasted  much  like  that  at  the  famous  French  Lick  Springs 
of  Indiana.  Whatever  its  mineral  properties  were  the 
moose  were  evidently  very  fond  of  it.  Their  trails,  in 
places  worn  two  feet  deep,  converged  toward  it  from  both 
sides  of  the  river  like  highways  toward  a  city. 

We  had  been  making  heavy  inroads  of  late  into  our 
provisions,  and  it  was  highly  desirable  that  we  obtain 
meat.  We  camped  a  few  hundred  yards  above  the  lick, 
and  I  sent  the  doctor  to  keep  watch  with  instructions  to 
shoot  anything  eatable  that  might  appear.  I  then  set  out 
to  climb  the  mountain-side  behind  camp  in  order  to  get 
a  look  ahead,  while  Holben  walked  up  the  river  to  ex- 
amine the  rapids. 

After  climbing  several  hundred  feet  I  made  the  un- 
pleasant discovery  that  the  river,  which  above  the  forks 


LATER  EXPLORERS  213 

had  been  following  an  almost  east  and  west  course, 
turned  southeastward  a  few  miles  ahead,  instead  of 
northeastward,  as  I  had  expected,  Wliile  I  was  still  cogi- 
tating upon  this  unexpected  discovery  there  resounded 
from  down  in  the  valley  four  thunderous  reports  from 
the  doctor's  high-power  .35  caliber  Newton.  As  it  was 
already  growing  dusk,  nothing  could  be  gained  by  climb- 
ing higher,  so  I  descended  to  camp  and  there  Holben 
presently  appeared  with  the  discouraging  word  that  he 
believed  that  we  had  reached  the  head  of  navigation. 
Soon  the  doctor  came  in  through  the  darkness  with  news 
that  he  had  shot  a  young  moose,  so  we  were  assured 
of  an  ample  supply  of  fresh  meat. 

Holben's  report  on  the  river  ahead  was  so  unfavorable 
that  we  decided  to  take  to  the  hills.  Next  morning  we 
made  a  cache  in  the  woods  some  distance  below  the  moose 
lick.  We  pitched  the  larger  tent  and  put  some  of  our 
belongings  in  it,  but  all  of  the  food  we  put  on  a  platform 
fastened  between  two  spruce  trees.  The  canoe  we  drew 
up  into  the  woods  to  a  place  where  no  tree  would  be 
likely  to  fall  on  it. 

About  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  struck  off  into 
the  mountains  with  pack-sacks.  We  took  with  us  a 
double  blanket  apiece,  a  meager  cooking  outfit,  a  strip 
of  canvas,  a  four  and  a  half  pound  balloon-silk  forester 
tent,  and  provisions  for  about  eight  days.  Each  man  had 
a  rifle,  and  George  carried  a  "  half-axe." 

As  those  who  have  tried  it  know,  back-packing  through 
the  mountains  is  the  hardest  work  a  man  ever  tried. 
Holben  and  I  were  both  out  of  practice,  while  it  was 
Chesterfield's  first  experience.  But  we  made  eleven  hun- 
dred feet  by  aneroid  before  camping,  and  thirteen  hun- 
dred more  the  next  morning,  and  by  noon  had  topped  the 


214      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

first  range,  which  had  an  altitude  of  fifty-one  hundred 
feet.  So  far  good,  but  when  we  had  moved  northeast- 
ward along  a  grassy  alpine  valley  for  a  couple  of  miles 
we  came  to  a  deep  cleft  which  reached  down  almost  to 
the  level  of  the  river,  and  it  was  clear  that  we  had 
climbed  too  soon.  Here  we  flushed  a  covey  of  big  blue 
grouse,  which  alighted  in  balsam  trees,  and  Chesterfield 
shot  three  with  a  little  .22  pistol. 

Leaving  my  pack  near  where  we  found  the  grouse,  I 
climbed  a  thousand  feet  to  the  top  of  a  summit  on  the 
left  and  from  thence  obtained  at  last  a  view  of  our  long 
sought  goal.  Before  me,  above  the  next  range,  towered 
the  three  snow-capped  peaks  of  Mt.  Lloyd  George, 
while  for  miles  to  right  and  left  of  them  stretched  away 
the  great  white  ice-field  of  my  dreams.  It  was  truly 
a  sublime  spectacle,  well  worth  the  weeks  of  bitter  effort 
the  view  had  cost  me,  and  yet  disappointment  mingled 
with  my  exaltation.  The  mountain  was  farther  away  than 
I  had  hoped,  and  the  range  between  ran  parallel  with,  not 
toward,  the  Lloyd  George  range.  Clearly  much  hard 
work  lay  before  us.  Holben's  enthusiasm  for  the  search 
was  already  visibly  evaporating,  the  doctor's  determina- 
tion was  stronger  than  his  ability  as  a  packer,  and  I 
realized  that  even  yet  we  might  have  to  turn  back  without 
reaching  the  goal. 

I  noticed  that  the  valley  ahead  rose  rapidly  to  west- 
ward, and  in  the  hope  that  it  would  reach  such  an  eleva- 
tion that  we  would  not  have  to  descend  far  we  followed 
along  its  rim  until  near  sunset.  We  made  camp  in  a 
little  grassy  glade,  with  dwarfed  balsam  trees  handy  for 
beds  and  firewood.  Owing  to  the  presence  of  slide  rock, 
water  was  scarce,  but  I  managed  to  find  a  tiny  rill  and 
obtained  a  scanty  supply.    The  rill  was  surrounded  on 


LATER  EXPLORERS  215 

all  sides  by  a  dense  willow  thicket,  and  while  I  was  wait- 
ing for  the  water  to  collect  in  a  hole  I  had  dug  in  the 
gravel  I  heard  a  noise  in  the  thicket.  Thinking  it  was 
one  of  my  companions,  I  called  out;  as  there  was  no 
answer,  I  realized  that  it  was  an  animal  of  some  sort. 
But  the  willows  were  so  thick  I  could  not  see  ten  feet 
through  them.  In  fact,  I  never  even  caught  a  glimpse 
of  the  animal,  but  subsequently  I  found,  about  sixty  feet 
away,  the  fresh  tracks  of  a  big  grizzly  bear.  He  had 
stolen  quietly  out  on  the  other  side. 

Three  hours  of  travel  next  morning  found  us  still  on 
the  first  range,  while  far  above  and  behind  us  towered 
the  black,  craggy  peaks  of  the  culminating  summit. 
Four  hundred  feet  beneath  us  lay  the  barrier  valley  which 
had,  as  we  had  hoped,  risen  to  timber-line.  Beyond  this 
pass  rose  another  peak,  its  middle  slopes  covered  with 
grass  and  dwarf  balsam,  its  summit  a  rugged  mass  of 
crumbling  slate.  It  was  ideal  country  in  which  to  hunt, 
and  even  as  we  sat  feasting  our  eyes  on  the  prospect, 
Chesterfield  noticed  a  bull  caribou  walking  along  the 
mountain  slope  opposite.  The  animal  caught  sight  of 
us  almost  at  the  same  time,  and  when  the  doctor  moved 
to  obtain  a  better  position  from  which  to  shoot,  the  bull 
turned  and  ran  up  the  mountain-side.  But  after  going 
twenty  or  thirty  yards  his  fatal  curiosity  got  the  better 
of  him  and  he  turned  broadside  on  for  another  look. 
Both  of  us  let  drive  but  without  result.  The  bull  ran  a 
few  yards  and  again  stopped.  Quickly  raising  the  Lyman 
sight  on  my  breech-bolt  from  three  hundred  and  fifty 
to  four  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  I  took  steady  aim,  rest- 
ing my  elbows  on  my  knees,  and  fired  again.  The  Spring- 
field bullet  told  with  a  resounding  smack,  and  the  bull 
went  down.    Soon  he  was  up  again,  but  it  was  clear  that 


2i6     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

he  was  disabled,  and  we  all  thought  from  his  behavior 
that  he  was  hit  in  the  lungs. 

Descending  into  the  valley,  we  left  our  packs  there  and 
climbed  up  to  the  game.  We  found  the  bull  lying  in 
some  dwarf  balsam.  He  stood  up  as  we  approached,  and 
then  we  saw  that  he  was  shot  through  the  windpipe.  He 
was  of  the  Osborn  species^  still  young  and  with  rather 
small  antlers,  from  which  a  few  strips  of  "  velvet "  were 
still  hanging.  He  looked  ugly  and  displayed  a  disposi- 
tion to  charge,  but  by  keeping  above  him  we  managed 
to  take  a  number  of  pictures  at  close  range.  Doodle 
.was  too  venturesome.  He  rushed  in  on  the  bull  and 
began  snapping  at  his  heels,  whereupon  the  caribou 
charged  him  with  surprising  agility,  and,  striking  a  light- 
ning blow  with  his  big  front  feet,  landed  on  the  terrier's 
back.  Luckily  it  was  a  glancing  blow,  else  it  would  have 
been  the  end  of  Doodle.  The  terrier  gave  an  agonized 
yelp  and  took  refuge  in  some  bushes.  Thereafter  he 
was  more  wary  in  his  demonstrations. 

"  We  don't  want  to  skin  the  bull  here,"  said  Holben 
presently.    "  We'll  just  drive  him  down  into  the  valley." 

By  much  shouting  and  throwing  of  sticks  and  stones 
we  finally  did  get  the  bull  down  into  the  grassy  pass,  and 
there  the  doctor  administered  the  coup  de  grace  with  his 
.2  2  pistol.  The  antlers  seemed  hardly  worth  the  labor 
of  carrying  out,  but  we  took  the  skin,  and  I  used  it  most 
of  the  rest  of  the  trip  for  a  bed,  a  purpose  it  served  ad- 
mirably. We  also  took  as  much  meat  as  we  could  carry. 
Holben  cut  off  the  ribs  on  one  side  and  roasted  them 
before  the  fire.  That  night  we  ate  unbelievable  quanti- 
ties of  caribou  meat,  which  stands  next  after  mountain 
mutton  in  my  estimation. 

By  noon  next  day,  after  a  hard  and  dangerous  climb 


LATER  EXPLORERS  217 

over  rotten  slate  ledges,  we  topped  the  next  range  and 
beheld  a  magnificent  panorama.  Four  thousand  feet 
beneath  us  lay  the  valley  of  the  North  Fork,  or  Warne- 
ford  River,  while  beyond  towered  range  after  range  of 
rugged  peaks.  Most  conspicuous,  of  course,  were  Mt. 
Lloyd  George  and  the  great  ice-field.  We  could  see  the 
upper  part  of  three  glacier  snouts  descending  from  the 
field,  but  their  lower  portions  were  cut  off  from  view. 
Far  to  the  northwest  along  the  same  range  was  another 
large  glacier,  distant  perhaps  twenty  miles  from  us. 
Below  it  lay  an  emerald-green  lake,  probably  seven  or 
eight  miles  long  and  studded  with  a  dozen  rocky  islands. 
Somewhat  farther  down  the  valley  were  a  number  of 
large  ponds,  while  southeast  of  Lloyd  George  lay  another 
lake,  only  slightly  smaller  than  the  first  and  surrounded 
on  three  sides  by  tall  mountains. 

The  scene  held  for  me  one  big  surprise.  Ever  since 
the  19 1 6  trip  I  had  believed  that  the  Lloyd  George  gla- 
ciers drained  into  the  East  Fork  of  the  Quadacha,  and 
that  it  was  they  that  made  "  the  Quadacha  white."  But 
now  I  saw  that  those  before  us  formed  the  main  sources 
of  the  West  Fork,  or  as  I  had  named  it,  Warneford 
River,  and  that  the  white  water  of  the  East  Fork  must 
come  from  some  other  source. 

Steep  cliffs  made  any  descent  into  the  valley  at  that 
place  impossible,  so  we  moved  along  the  top  of  the  range. 
Not  until  late  in  the  afternoon  did  we  reach  a  place 
where  a  descent  seemed  practicable,  and  by  that  time  we 
were  back  to  a  point  near  but  far  above  the  East  Fork 
of  the  Quadacha.  For  more  than  three  days  we  had 
been  traveling  in  a  vast  semicircle,  and  our  camp  was 
not  more  than  eight  miles  in  a  direct  line  from  our  canoe 
and  cache.     It  was  clear  that  if  we  had  ascended  the 


2i8      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

river  a  few  miles  more — and  we  later  found  that  this 
could  have  been  done — and  had  then  climbed  the  range 
we  were  now  on  we  would  have  saved  an  immense  amount 
of  effort.  But  it  is  often  so  when  traveling  in  an  unex- 
plored country. 

It  was  evident  that  the  task  of  reaching  Lloyd  George 
would  still  be  long  and  difficult.  We  were  badly  worn- 
out,  so  we  spent  the  next  day  pottering  about  the  camp 
and  along  the  range.  The  next  morning  Holben  set  out 
for  the  cache  to  bring  up  more  food.  The  doctor  and  I 
spent  the  two  days  while  Holben  was  away  hunting  along 
the  range  to  eastward.  We  found  many  old  caribou 
tracks  and  droppings,  and  it  was  clear  that  a  month 
earlier  the  animals  had  been  there  in  considerable  num- 
bers, but  they  had  gone  elsewhere,  and  we  saw  no  game 
bigger  than  ptarmigan. 

We  were  able,  however,  to  study  the  problem  ahead  at 
leisure  and  to  obtain  some  fine  views  of  Lloyd  George. 
Two  of  the  peaks  appeared  to  be  almost  perfect  cones, 
while  the  third  and  nearest  was  a  rough  block.  When  all 
other  mountains  in  the  region  were  in  plain  sight,  the 
peaks  of  Lloyd  George  were  often  veiled  in  clouds.  I 
realized  that  the  mountain  was  taller  than  I  had  sup^ 
posed  and  that  the  task  of  climbing  it  would  be  a  serious 
one.  Its  height  could  hardly  be  less  than  ten  thousand 
feet,  which  would  make  it  considerably  taller  than  any 
other  peak  in  the  Rockies  north  of  the  Robson  region. 
However,  the  snow-field  was  the  biggest  spectacle,  even 
though  it  seemed  certain  that  the  larger  part  of  it  was 
out  of  sight  on  the  northern  slope  of  the  range. 

We  were  also  able  to  obtain  fairly  good  views  of  the 
upper  Quadacha  and  of  a  fine  range  of  snow-capped 
mountains  in  which  part  of  it  seemed  to  head.    There  are 


LATER  EXPLORERS  219 

four  of  these  peaks,  and  I  have  little  doubt  that  the 
largest  is  the  "  Great  Snow  Mountain,"  seen  by  Frederick 
K.  Vreeland  from  the  Laurier  Pass  country  to  southward 
in  1 91 2.  It  seemed  to  us  that  one  branch  of  the  East 
Fork  swung  in  behind  the  Lloyd  George  range,  and  I 
think  it  probable  that  this  stream  drains  still  greater 
glaciers  on  the  north  slope. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day  Holben 
reached  camp  with  a  small  load  of  food  and  with  some 
disquieting  news.  He  said  that  our  last  fire  in  the  valley 
had  caught  in  the  peat-like  soil  and  had  burned  a  great 
hole  eight  or  ten  feet  across  and  three  or  four  feet  deep. 
He  had  arrived  just  in  time  to  save  the  tent  and  its  con- 
tents, and  he  said  that  in  a  few  hours  more  the  fire  would 
probably  have  begun  running  through  the  forest  and 
would  inevitably  have  destroyed  both  our  canoe  and 
cache.  He  had  spent  hours  putting  out  the  fire  and  on 
leaving  supposed  that  he  had  done  so,  but  on  the  way 
up  to  join  us  he  had  grown  fearful  that  some  sparks 
might  still  be  smoldering  and  that  these  might  start  the 
conflagration  afresh.  It  was  greatly  to  our  discredit  as 
woodsmen  that  we  had  not  thrown  water  on  the  fire  when 
we  left  it,  but  only  a  few  embers  had  remained  and  the 
soil  was  so  damp  that,  though  both  Holben  and  I  had 
thought  of  doing  so,  we  had  each  decided  it  to  be 
needless. 

After  a  consultation  it  was  decided  that  Holben  should 
return  to  camp  and  make  sure,  while  the  doctor  and  I 
should  go  on  to  Lloyd  George  alone.  I  was  loth  to  lose 
Holben's  aid  as  a  packer,  and  I  knew  that  his  help  in 
case  a  mishap  should  befall  either  of  us  would  be  in- 
valuable, but  the  possibility  of  being  left  five  hundred 
and  forty  miles  by  river  from  railhead  without  either 


220      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

canoe  or  food  was  entirely  too  serious  to  be  contemplated 
lightly. 

Next  morning,  taking  our  rifles,  the  little  axe,  the 
forester  tent,  a  single  blanket  apiece,  and  what  food  we 
could  carry,  the  doctor  and  I  plunged  down  into  the 
valley  on  our  way  to  Lloyd  George.  The  goal  we  had 
set  for  that  day  was  a  small  glacier  on  the  opposite 
range.  By  a  little  before  sunset  we  reached  the  glacier 
and  crossed  it.  We  had  seen  many  caribou  tracks  on  the 
way,  and  the  snow  on  the  ice  was  trampled  down  and 
crimsoned  with  blood  from  the  animals'  soft  horns,  but 
of  the  animals  themselves  we  caught  no  glimpse.  How- 
ever, as  I  was  selecting  the  site  for  the  tent  in  a  little 
glade  among  some  balsam  trees  a  big  cock  blue  grouse 
walked  out  of  the  grass  and  stood  staring  at  us  until  I 
decapitated  him  with  a  bullet  from  the  Springfield. 
Surely  he  was  a  most  obliging  bird!  His  weight  was  cer- 
tainly not  less  than  five  pounds,  and  he  formed  the  main 
ingredient  in  a  toothsome  mulligan  that  lasted  for  three 
meals. 

I  went  to  sleep  that  night  believing  that  next  day  would 
be  the  crucial  one  of  the  whole  trip.  A  high  barrier  ridge 
still  lay  between  us  and  our  goal,  and  though  we  had 
studied  it  long  and  eagerly  through  our  glasses  from  the 
range  behind  us  we  felt  by  no  means  sure  that  we  would 
be  able  to  pass  it. 

Reaching  a  big  mountain  is,  in  fact,  not  unlike  secur- 
ing an  interview  with  a  great  man:  one  must  pass  all  sorts 
of  obstacles  before  finally  attaining  the  inner  sanctum. 

Next  morning  we  climbed  the  barrier  ridge,  only  to 
find  that  on  the  other  side  it  broke  down  in  steep  preci- 
pices. We  attempted  to  follow  the  ridge  but  speedily 
became  involved  in  a  tangle  of  impassable  cliffs.    Turning 


LATER  EXPLORERS  221 

down  into  the  glacial  valley  again,  we  made  our  way 
slowly  over  slide  rock  to  the  mountain  that  rose  at  the 
head  of  the  valley,  and  attempted  to  climb  round  its  left 
shoulder. 

This  mountain  is  absolutely  the  most  barren  peak  it 
has  ever  been  my  lot  to  see.  From  this  summit,  on  every 
side,  down  to  timber-line  its  steep  slopes  are  covered  with 
slide  rock,  ranging  from  stones  the  size  of  one's  fist  up 
to  huge  boulders  as  big  as  a  house.  For  hours  we  picked 
a  perilous  way  round  this  peak,  rarely  sure  of  our  footing 
and  often  becoming  involved  in  frightful  difficulties.  But 
happily  the  slip  that  would  have  proved  fatal  never  oc- 
cured,  and  about  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  finally 
reached  a  long  ridge  which  presently  brought  us  in  sight 
of  what  we  were  seeking. 

Once  more  Lloyd  George  and  the  great  ice-field  loomed 
up  before  us,  and  we  had  a  clear  view  of  the  three  glaciers, 
rippling  down  for  two  thousand  feet  or  more  into  the 
valley.  In  the  valley  itself  an  unexpected  spectacle  met 
our  eyes:  a  gorgeous  alpine  lake  six  or  seven  miles  long, 
a  mile  or  more  wide,  and  surrounded  on  three  sides  by 
high  mountains.  As  usual  the  peaks  of  Lloyd  George 
were  partly  veiled  in  clouds. 

We  made  a  miserable  camp  that  night  on  a  rocky  shelf 
just  at  timber-line,  and  had  a  hard  time  keeping  our  fire 
going  because  of  shifting  wind  and  gusts  of  snow  and 
rain.  By  noon  next  day  we  reached  the  shores  of  the 
lake  but  rather  the  worse  for  wear.  I  myself  was  very 
weary,  and  the  doctor  was  so  exhausted  that  on  the  way 
down  he  had  had  a  sort  of  mental  lapse.  He  left  his  rifle 
lying  on  the  mountain-side  where  we  stopped  to  rest,  and 
we  had  gone  several  hundred  yards  before  I  noticed  it 
was  missing. 


222      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

"  Where  is  your  gun?  "  I  asked  him. 

He  held  up  his  camera  by  its  strap  and  answered  in  a 
sort  of  dazed  way:  "  Isn't  this  it?  "  But  presently  he 
came  to  himself,  and  together  we  went  back  and  recov- 
ered the  weapon. 

After  lunch  he  had  a  fit  of  vomiting,  but  his  spirit  was 
still  strong,  though  the  flesh  was  weak,  and  he  insisted 
on  accompanying  me  up  the  lake  shore  toward  the 
glaciers.  Leaving  our  pack-sacks  under  some  spruce 
trees,  we  set  out. 

Rarely  have  men  walked  amid  grander  surroundings, 
and,  despite  his  illness,  Chesterfield's  spirits  rose,  while 
I  forgot  my  stiffened  muscles  and  felt  only  the  exaltation 
of  success.  Furthermore,  Nature  relented  and  furnished 
us  a  smooth  level  beach  on  which  we  walked  almost  as 
upon  a  pavement,  except  that  now  and  then  we  would 
come  to  a  bushy  slideway  through  which  we  must  pick 
our  way.  The  beach  was  covered  with  game  signs,  in- 
cluding the  tracks  of  grizzlies,  while  the  saplings  in  the 
slides  were  scarred  by  bull  caribou  and  moose  cleaning 
their  horns  of  "  velvet  "  and  testing  their  newly  grown 
weapons.  In  the  two  days  we  were  about  the  lake  we 
saw  six  moose,  all  cows  or  calves.  It  was  truly  a  virgin 
sf)ot,  one  that  seemingly  had  never  been  profaned  even 
by  the  Indians. 

Three  hours'  walking  brought  us  within  a  few  hundred 
yards  of  the  glaciers,  but  here  our  way  was  barred  by 
a  limestone  precipice  that  reached  down  to  the  water's 
edge.  The  afternoon  was  already  nearly  spent,  so  re- 
luctantly we  turned  back  toward  our  packs.  Thus  far 
the  peaks  of  Lloyd  George  had  been  veiled  with  clouds, 
but  for  a  few  minutes  they  were  revealed  and  from  some 
distance  down  the  lake  I  obtained  pictures  which  showed 


"1    had   the  g(n)(l   forluiif   tn  kill   an   ininuiisc   I)ull   UKMjse 


LATER  EXPLORERS  223 

them  in  dim  outline.  The  closer-up  pictures  of  the  gla- 
ciers unfortunately  proved  unsuccessful.  Two  of  the 
glaciers,  I  may  say  here,  descend  to  the  water  level;  the 
third  ends  at  a  cliff  hundreds  of  feet  up,  and  the  water 
comes  tumbling  down  in  a  fine  feathery  cascade.  The 
smallest  is  hundreds  of  yards  wide. 

It  had  been  my  hope,  when  I  undertook  the  trip,  to 
reach  the  top  of  the  mountain,  but  I  reahzed  now  that 
I  must  give  up  the  thought.  Only  a  larger  party,  well- 
equipped  with  an  alpine  outfit,  could  safely  climb  those 
rugged  slopes  of  ice.  In  our  present  weakened  state  and 
without  proper  equipment  such  an  attempt  would  have 
been  little  short  of  madness.  For  a  time  I  considered 
building  a  raft  and  actually  going  to  the  foot  of  the  gla- 
ciers, but  there  was  little  to  be  gained  by  doing  so,  as 
we  had  already  been  very  close  up.  Furthermore,  the 
effort  would  have  taken  a  couple  of  days,  the  weather 
was  threatening,  the  season  was  late,  there  was  danger 
that  we  might  be  snowed  in.  So  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
next  day  we  took  the  homeward  way. 

I  had  noticed  from  the  heights  that  the  outlet  of  the 
lake  takes  a  very  big  drop,  and  I  had  resolved  to  inves- 
tigate this  on  the  way  back.  Near  the  foot  of  the  lake 
we  passed  an  enormous  beaver  house,  one  of  the  largest 
I  ever  saw,  though  not  quite  so  big  as  one  we  saw  later 
near  Quadacha  Forks.  We  found  the  outlet  of  the  lake 
to  be  a  stream  about  eighty  feet  wide  with  a  good  volume 
of  water.  This  little  river  has  a  descent  of  over  a  thou- 
sand feet  in  less  than  a  mile.  Right  at  the  outlet  there 
is  a  considerable  cascade.  Around  a  bend  we  came  upon 
two  more.  Just  below  these  the  river  lets  go  all  holds 
and  drops  sheer  almost  two  hundred  feet,  by  aneroid 
measurement,  in  one  of  the  prettiest  falls  one  could  wish 


224      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

to  see.  This  final  discovery  formed  the  climax  of  the 
trip,  and,  needless  to  say,  we  were  happy  men. 

The  great  mountain,  the  immense  snow-field,  the  three 
rippling  rivers  of  ice,  the  emerald-green  lake,  the  superb 
falls,  form,  all  in  all,  a  combination  scarcely  equalled  in 
America.  But  it  will  be  many  years  before  tourists  will 
visit  the  place.  Personally  I  am  glad  of  it.  I  should  hate 
to  think  of  that  virgin  wilderness  being  littered  with  dis- 
carded lunch-boxes  and  the  landscape  scarred  with  auto- 
mobile trails! 

Four  days  of  hard  travel  brought  us  back  once  more 
to  the  canoe  and  cache,  where  I  experienced  great  relief 
in  finding  everything  safe.  The  rest  of  our  stay  in  the 
Quadacha  country  was  devoted  to  hunting,  and  we  had 
numerous  interesting  experiences.  In  the  twilight  one 
evening  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  kill  an  immense  bull 
moose  that  was  six  feet  eight  inches  high  at  the  shoulder 
and  that  had  a  fine,  symmetrical  spread  of  antlers.  But 
of  this  and  of  a  startling  adventure  that  befell  us  on  our 
way  down  Peace  River  I  shall  not  attempt  to  tell  here. 

We  had  failed  to  climb  IMount  Lloyd  George,  but  we 
had  reached  and  photographed  it,  had  mapped  Warne- 
ford  River  and  much  of  the  East  Fork  of  the  Quadacha, 
had  discovered  two  new  lakes  and  definitely  located  a 
third  that  hitherto  was  known  only  by  Indian  report,  and 
had  found  one  of  the  finest  falls  in  the  world.  Doubtless 
we  should  have  had  time  and  energy  to  do  more  had  we 
not  had  the  misfortune  with  our  motor.  As  it  was,  we 
got  out  of  the  Finlay  country  just  in  time  to  escape  the 
freeze-up,  and  it  was  eight  degrees  below  zero  the  second 
night  after  we  reached  railhead  at  Peace  River  Landing. 

There  still  remains  a  big  summer's  work  in  the 
Quadacha  region.     Some  party  should  trace  the  upper 


LATER  EXPLORERS  225 

reaches  of  the  East  Fork,  should  climb  Lloyd  George, 
and  should  ascertain  the  exact  dimensions  of  the  snow- 
field.  Such  a  party  should  start  at  least  a  month  earlier 
than  we  were  able  to  do.  I  have  little  doubt  that  on 
the  northern  slope  of  the  Lloyd  George  range  they  will 
find  glaciers  even  bigger  than  those  we  saw  and  photo- 
graphed. 

In  other  parts  of  the  Canadian  Northland  there  still 
exist  other  unexplored  areas  in  which  persons  wishing  to 
get  in  Back  of  Beyond  can  realize  their  desire,  I  have 
given  somewhat  in  detail  my  own  experiences,  not  pri- 
marily because  of  their  importance,  but  as  illustrating 
what  can  still  be  done  in  the  far  Northwest. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

HOW  AMUNDSEN   MADE  THE   NORTHWEST   PASSAGE 

One  spring  day  in  1889  a  young  Norwegian  named 
Fridtjof  Nansen  came  up  Christiania  Fjord  and  received 
the  plaudits  of  admiring  throngs  for  having  accomplished 
the  splendid  feat  of  crossing  the  great  Greenland  ice  cap 
on  skis.  Among  the  thousands  who  cheered  the  erect 
young  ski-runner  that  bright  sunny  day  was  a  boy  named 
Roald  Amundsen,  and  as  the  lad  wandered  with  throbbing 
pulses  amid  the  bunting  and  the  cheering  crowds  there 
was  born  in  his  eager  brain  the  thought  that  some  day  he, 
too,  would  become  an  explorer.  And  something  seemed 
to  whisper  to  him:  "If  you  could  make  the  Northwest 
Passage!  " 

Four  years  later  Nansen  sailed  northward  in  the  Fram 
on  the  expedition  which  resulted  in  his  getting  farther 
north  than  man  had  ever  done  before.  Amundsen  felt 
that  he  must  go  with  his  hero,  but  his  mother  thought 
him  too  young  and  wisely  bade  him  stay  at  home  and  go 
on  with  his  lessons.  In  a  year  or  so,  however,  his  mother 
passed  away,  and  in  1894  he  made  his  first  voyage  to 
the  Polar  Sea  on  board  a  sealing  vessel.  In  1897  to  1899 
he  took  part,  as  mate,  in  the  Belgian  Antarctic  Expedi- 
tion under  Adrien  de  Gerlache.  While  on  this  voyage  his 
boyhood  dream  took  definite  shape,  and  he  determined  to 
combine  with  the  search  for  the  Northwest  Passage  an 
object  of  still  greater  scientific  importance,  that  of  locat- 
ing the  present  situation  of  the  Magnetic  North  Pole. 

226 


THE  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE  227 

The  tasks  he  had  set  himself  required  extended  scien- 
tific training,  so  Amundsen  studied  terrestrial  magnetism 
and  other  subjects  in  the  German  Marine  Observatory 
and  elsewhere.  Like  all  truly  great  men  he  realized  the 
importance  of  fitting  himself  for  the  task  he  proposed 
to  undertake. 

Professor  Nansen  took  keen  interest  in  the  young  en- 
thusiast's plans  and  aided  him  to  collect  the  necessary 
funds.  By  the  spring  of  1903  all  was  in  readiness.  A 
sturdy  wooden  ship  named  the  Gjoa  had  been  bought 
and  fitted  out  with  a  thirteen-horsepower  petroleum 
motor,  and  in  her  Amundsen  had  already  made  a  trial 
voyage  to  the  Polar  Sea.  Provisions  and  equipment  had 
been  carefully  selected,  and  a  crew  of  six  had  been  en- 
gaged. All  these  men  were  hardy,  resourceful  fellows, 
able  to  turn  their  hands  to  almost  everything.  Even  the 
cook,  Adolf  H.  Lindstrom,  could  run  the  engine,  steer 
the  ship,  or  make  zoological  collections. 

On  the  night  of  the  i6th  of  June,  1903,  the  little  ship 
sailed  quietly  out  of  Christiania  harbor  on  a  venture  that 
in  four  centuries  had  cost  the  lives  of  hundreds  of  brave 
men  and  had  baffled  scores  of  bold  mariners  from  Ver- 
razano  and  Cartier  to  Franklin  and  Collinson. 

The  supplies  included  scientific  equipment,  food  for 
five  years,  petroleum  for  the  engine,  rifles  and  cartridges, 
and  six  Eskimo  dogs  which  had  been  brought  to  Norway 
by  the  second  Fram  expedition.  On  the  voyage  across 
the  Atlantic  two  of  the  dogs  were  seized  by  a  disease  that 
paralyzed  them  and  they  had  to  be  killed.  Ten  more 
dogs,  sledges,  kayaks,  and  other  equipment  were  obtained 


228      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

at  Godhavn  in  Greenland.  At  Dalrymple  Rock,  north  of 
Cape  York,  they  took  on  board  considerable  further 
stores  that  had  been  deposited  for  them  by  Scotch  whaling 
vessels.  By  this  time  the  little  Gjoa  was  so  heavily  laden 
that  the  deck  was  down  almost  to  water-line,  and  cases 
were  piled  nearly  as  high  as  the  main  boom. 

Ice  conditions  in  the  Arctic  were  unusually  favorable 
that  year,  and  with  comparatively  little  difficulty  the  ex- 
plorers crossed  Lancaster  Sound  and  on  August  22 
anchored  in  Erebus  Bay  on  the  southeast  coast  of  Beechey 
Island.  It  was  at  this  place  that  the  last  Franklin  expe- 
dition had  spent  their  first  winter^  and  from  it  they  had 
vanished  from  the  sight  of  men.  Here  stood  memorials  to 
Franklin  and  to  certain  other  explorers  who  had  perished 
in  that  region.  Here  also  were  the  graves  of  some  of 
Franklin's  men,  marked  by  wooden  crosses.  Here  a 
depot  of  provisions  and  supplies  had  been  established  in 
1852  for  the  use  of  one  of  the  expeditions  that  searched 
for  Franklin,  or  for  Franklin  himself  if  he  happened  to 
pass  that  way. 

Some  parts  of  the  building  still  remained,  as  well  as 
some  of  the  supplies.  Amundsen  took  away  the  last  of 
the  coal  and  also  a  small  quantity  of  sole  leather.  This 
last,  though  over  half  a  century  old  and  exposed  for  many 
years  to  wind  and  weather,  they  found  to  be  preferable  to 
their  new  "  best  American  sole  leather  " — a  discouraging 
evidence  of  degeneracy  in  present-day  methods  and 
workmanship. 

Some  of  the  crew  became  so  interested  in  this  salvage 
work  that  they  could  hardly  bear  to  leave  anything  be- 
hind. The  smith  found  an  ancient  anvil  over  which  he 
went  into  the  wildest  raptures.  Nothing  would  do  but 
that  it  must  be  taken  along;    "  the  expedition  would 


THE  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE  229 

simply  go  to  the  bottom  "  without  it.  So  on  board  it 
went,  though  no  real  use  was  ever  found  for  it.  Several 
other  members  took  a  great  fancy  to  an  old  handcart  and 
thought  it  ought  to  be  taken,  but  there  was  no  space  for 
it,  and  when  Amundsen  facetiously  asked  if  they  would 
take  it  in  their  bunks,  they  reluctantly  abandoned  the 
idea. 

After  making  needed  magnetic  observations  the  expe- 
dition left  this  gloomy  island  of  darkness  and  death  and 
steered  southwestward.  For  a  time  they  had  little  diffi- 
culty with  ice,  but  one  day  in  Peel  Sound  they  perceived 
far  ahead  in  the  mirror-like  glitter  of  the  calm  sea  what 
appeared  to  be  a  solid  mass  of  ice  extending  from  shore 
to  shore.  Amundsen  feared,  with  a  sinking  heart,  that 
he  was  about  to  reach  the  barrier  that  had  turned  all  his 
predecessors  back — "  the  border  of  solid  unbroken  ice." 
But  the  season  had  been  unusually  favorable,  and  luck 
was  with  them.  Between  the  shore  and  the  ice  on  either 
side  they  found  clear  and  unimpeded  channels,  through 
one  of  which  they  passed  easily  and  were  soon  again  in 
open  water. 

That  night  they  reached  a  point  so  near  the  Magnetic 
Pole  that  their  compass  ceased  to  act,  and  they  were  re- 
duced to  steering  by  the  sun  and  stars  like  their  Viking 
forefathers.  As  the  sky  was  veiled  a  large  part  of  the 
time  in  impenetrable  fog,  such  navigation  was  very  dan- 
gerous. 

Late  next  day  the  Gjoa  reached  the  De  la  Roquette 
Islands,  where  in  1875  Sir  Allen  Young  in  the  Pandora 
had  encountered  an  impenetrable  barrier  of  ice.  But 
again  the  lucky  Norwegians  found  open  water  and  sailed 
on  to  Bellot  Strait,  where  for  two  years  Captain  Mc- 
Clintock  had  vainly  waited  for  a  chance  to  get  through. 


230      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

At  Bellot  Strait  the  Gjoa  again  found  an  open  channel 
and  passed  on  into  virgin  water  never  before  traversed 
by  the  keel  of  a  ship. 

Thus  far  the  expedition  had  met  no  insurmountable 
barrier,  but  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  all  had  been 
easy.  The  ordinary  hazards  of  the  Arctic  sea  had  re- 
quired all  their  resourcefulness,  and  if  all  had  not  been 
men  experienced  in  navigating  ice-filled  waters,  they 
would  doubtless  long  before  have  come  to  grief. 

On  September  ist,  while  they  were  still  congratulating 
themselves  over  having  entered  the  hitherto  unnavi- 
gated  portion  of  the  Northwest  Passage,  they  met  with 
the  most  dangerous  experience  of  the  voyage.  At  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning  they  ran  aground  upon  a  great 
submerged  reef  that  branched  out  in  all  directions.  They 
threw  overboard  twenty-five  of  their  heaviest  cases,  each 
of  which  contained  about  four  hundred  pounds  of  pem- 
mican  for  dogs,  and  all  that  day  labored  to  get  off  the 
reef,  but  in  vain.  That  night  a  gale  sprang  up  from  the 
north.  The  vessel  pitched  violently  upon  the  rocks,  the 
wind  howled  through  the  rigging,  and  the  spray  dashed 
over  the  ship.  As  a  last  resort,  Amundsen  decided  to 
set  the  sails  and  endeavor  to  get  off  the  reef  with  their  aid. 

"  Then,"  says  he,  "  we  commenced  a  method  of  sailing 
not  one  of  us  is  ever  likely  to  forget  should  he  attain 
the  age  of  Methusaleh.  The  mighty  press  of  sail  and  the 
high  choppy  sea,  combined,  had  the  effect  of  lifting  the 
vessel  up,  and  pitching  her  forward  again  among  the 
rocks,  so  that  we  expected  every  moment  to  see  her 
planks  scattered  on  the  sea.  The  false  keel  was 
splintered,  and  floated  up.  All  we  could  do  was  to  watch 
the  course  of  events  and  calmly  await  the  issue.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  I  did  feel  calm  as  I  stood  in  the  rigging 


THE  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE  231 

and  followed  the  dance  from  one  rock  to  another.  I 
stood  there  with  the  bitterest  self-reproach.  If  I  had  set 
a  watch  in  the  crow's  nest;  this  would  never  have  hap- 
pened, because  he  would  have  observed  the  reef  a  long 
way  off  and  reported  it.  Was  my  carelessness  to  wreck 
my  whole  undertaking,  which  had  begun  so  auspiciously? 
Should  we,  who  had  got  so  much  further  than  any  one 
before  us — we  who  had  so  fortunately  cleared  parts  of 
the  passage  universally  regarded  as  the  most  difficult — 
should  we  now  be  compelled  to  stop  and  turn  back  crest- 
fallen? Turn  back!  that  might  yet  be  the  question.  If 
the  vessel  broke  up,  what  then?  I  had  to  hold  fast  with 
all  my  strength  whenever  the  vessel,  after  being  lifted, 
pitched  down  on  to  the  rocks,  or  I  should  have  been  flung 
into  the  sea.  Supposing  she  were  broken  up.  There  was 
a  very  good  prospect  of  it.  The  water  on  the  reef  got 
shallower,  and  I  noted  how  the  sea  broke  on  the  outer 
edge.  It  looked  as  if  the  raging  north  wind  meant  to 
carry  us  just  to  that  bitter  end.  The  sails  were  as  taut 
as  drumheads,  the  rigging  trembled,  and  I  expected  it  to 
go  overboard  every  minute.  We  were  steadily  nearing 
the  shallowest  part  of  the  reef,  and  sharper  and  sharper 
grew  the  lash  of  the  spray  over  the  vessel. 

"  I  thought  it  almost  impossible  the  ship  could  hold 
together  if  she  could  get  on  the  outer  edge  of  the  reef, 
which,  in  fact,  was  almost  lying  dry.  There  was  still  time 
to  let  down  a  boat  and  load  it  with  the  most  indispensable 
necessaries.  I  stood  up  there,  in  the  most  terrible  agony, 
struggling  for  a  decision.  On  me  rested  every  responsi- 
bility, and  the  moment  came  when  I  had  to  make  my 
choice — to  abandon  the  Gjoa,  take  to  the  boats,  and  let 
her  be  smashed  up,  or  to  dare  the  worst,  and  perchance 
go  to  meet  death  with  all  souls  on  board." 


232      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Amundsen  slid  down  to  the  deck,  and  there  Lund,  the 
first  mate,  a  very  experienced  man,  suggested  that  they 
throw  over  the  last  of  the  deck  cargo.  They  did  so,  and 
again  the  boat  forged  ahead  over  the  rocks.  Suddenly 
the  vessel  seemed  to  pull  herself  together  for  the  final 
leap.  "  She  was  lifted  up  high  and  flung  bodily  on  to  the 
bare  rocks,  bump,  bump — with  terrific  force.  ...  In 
my  distress  I  sent  up  (I  honestly  confess  it)  an  ardent 
prayer  to  the  Almighty.  Yet  another  thump,  worse  than 
ever,  then  one  more,  and  we  slid  off." 

Well  it  was  for  that  little  crew,  far  up  there  in  the  icy 
North,  that  there  was  staunch  timber  and  honest  crafts- 
manship in  their  little  ship! 

But  now  a  new  peril  threatened.  Lieutenant  Hansen 
at  the  wheel  cried  out  that  there  was  something  wrong 
with  the  rudder  so  that  it  would  not  steer.  To  one  side 
lay  a  rocky  island  upon  which  they  would  soon  drift  to 
destruction,  unless  the  rudder  would  work.  Suddenly 
the  little  ship  pitched  high  on  a  wave,  the  rudder  settled 
back  where  it  belonged,  and  Hansen  shouted  that  all  was 
right  again. 

Later  that  day  they  anchored  near  some  small  islands. 
A  frightful  storm  sprang  up,  and  there  was  danger  that 
the  anchor  chains  would  part  and  let  the  vessel  drift  to 
destruction.  The  engine  was  kept  working  full  steam 
ahead  to  relieve  the  strain  on  the  anchors.  "  Fortunately 
the  chains  held,"  says  Amundsen,  "  but  there  we  lay  for 
five  days  and  nights  in  terror,  while  the  gale  boxed  the 
compass." 

When  the  storm  finally  ceased,  the  explorers  sailed  on, 
but  it  was  clear  to  them  that  the  autumn  storms  had 
begun  in  earnest  and  that  further  progress  must  be  bought 
at  the  expense  of  the  greatest  danger.    Furthermore, 


THE  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE  233 

Amundsen  wished  to  stop  somewhere  in  this  region  in 
order  to  ascertain  the  location  of  the  Magnetic  North 
Pole.  One  day  on  the  southeast  coast  of  King  William 
Land  they  saw  a  little  harbor  that  would  be  almost  ideal 
for  winter  quarters,  so  after  sounding  the  entrance  and 
reconnoitering  the  country  the  explorers  sailed  their  vessel 
in.  The  basin  was  so  small  that  the  wind  could  not  raise 
troublesome  waves  in  it,  while  the  entrance  was  so  shallow 
and  narrow  that  drifting  ice — the  terror  of  all  Arctic 
explorers — could  not  enter  and  crush  the  ship.  They 
called  the  place  Gjohavn. 

As  speedily  as  possible  the  explorers  built  a  storehouse 
and  a  magnetic  observation  house  and  made  other 
preparations  to  pass  the  winter.  Two  of  the  men  slept 
in  the  observation  house,  and  the  rest  on  board  the  ship. 
Caribou  were  numerous,  and  when  they  began  their 
migration  southward,  more  than  a  hundred  were  killed 
for  winter  use.  One  day  a  number  of  Eskimos  appeared, 
and  thereafter  some  of  them  were  almost  constantly  about 
the  place.  Some,  in  fact,  came  hundreds  of  miles  to  see 
the  wonderful  Kablunas.  i.e.,  white  men.  The  explorers 
made  use  of  them  as  hunters  and  fishermen  and  to  make 
clothing  of  skins. 

The  explorers  remained  in  this  place  for  eighteen 
months,  and  every  day  of  that  time  careful  magnetic 
observations  were  taken.  Exploring  trips  were  made 
toward  the  Magnetic  Pole  and  to  Victoria  Land. 

The  time  passed  pleasantly,  for  there  was  plenty  of 
food,  and  the  explorers  were  like  a  happy  family.  There 
was  no  strict  discipline;  every  man  knew  his  duties  and 
performed  them  without  orders,  and  was  always  ready 
to  give  his  comrades  a  helping  hand.  This  was  possible 
because  Amundsen  was  a  natural-born  leader  and  also 


234      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

because  he  had  been  careful  to  take  with  him  only  good 
and  tried  men. 

The  monotony  of  their  life  was  broken  by  hunting  and 
fishing  trips,  by  visits  to  the  Eskimo  villages,  and  by 
good-natured  tricks  on  each  other.  Lindstrom,  the  cook, 
was  often  the  subject  of  these  jokes,  and  he  always  was 
ready  to  laugh  louder  than  any  one  when  he  saw  how 
he  had  been  sold.  One  day,  for  example,  Lund  and 
Hansen  took  a  frozen  ptarmigan,  killed  a  couple  of 
months  before,  and  placed  it  in  lifelike  pose  on  a  snow- 
drift about  twenty-five  yards  from  the  ship.  Then  Lund 
descended  to  the  fore-cabin,  where  the  cook  was  eating 
his  breakfast,  and  called  out:  "Lindstrom!  Lindstrom! 
there's  a  ptarmigan  yonder  on  the  ice."  The  cook,  an 
eager  sportsman,  snatched  up  his  shotgun  and  hurried 
to  the  deck.  "  Where  is  it?  "  he  demanded.  "  There,  on 
the  bow."  The  cook  crept  closer,  and  then  taking  careful 
aim  fired.  The  ptarmigan  rolled  over  in  the  snow.  "  Ha! 
Ha!  I  hit  him  that  time,"  cried  the  elated  cook  and 
ran  to  fetch  the  game.  He  picked  up  the  bird  and  felt 
of  it.  "  Why,  it  is  quite  cold!  "  he  exclaimed  in  astonish- 
ment. A  shout  burst  out  from  the  deck,  and,  looking  up, 
the  cook  perceived  the  jeering  faces  of  the  jokers. 

Even  Amundsen  himself  was  not  allowed  to  escape  a 
certain  amount  of  chaffing.  Once,  for  instance,  the  cap- 
tain undertook  to  learn  how  to  manage  an  Eskimo 
kayak,  or  skin  boat.  These  little  craft  are  very  cranky 
and  easily  upset.  "  I  chose,"  says  the  explorer,  "  a 
suitable  little  pond  for  practising  on.  At  first  I  managed 
splendidly,  but  my  comrades,  who  were  building  a  cairn 
close  by,  made  remarks  that  were  anything  but  flattering. 
I  calmly  turned  round  to  tell  them  that  I  evidently  had 
a  natural  talent  for  rowing  a  kayak.    At  that  instant  both 


THE  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE  235 

the  kayak  and  I  turned  over.  The  water  was  so  shallow 
that  I  touched  the  bottom  with  my  arms,  but  the  kayak 
filled  and  I  was  wet  to  the  skin.  The  others  had  to  drag 
me  ashore  and  my  return  to^  the  tent  to  change  my  clothes 
was  not  a  march  of  triumph." 

Another  time  a  member  of  the  expedition  quietly  passed 
the  word  among  the  Eskimos  that  the  captain  was  anxious 
to  buy  seal  bladders.  These  are  used  by  the  natives  for 
holding  reindeer  fat.  At  once  the  women  began  bringing 
the  blown  up  bladders  to  the  ship  for  him.  At  first 
Amundsen  bought  the  bladders,  giving  a  few  needles  in 
exchange,  but  the  supply  continued  to  grow  until  the 
whole  cabin  was  covered  with  bladders.  Then  he  refused 
to  buy  any  more.  Meanwhile,  the  other  explorers  had  a 
good  deal  of  quiet  fun  at  their  leader's  expense. 

Most  of  the  Eskimos  wlio  came  to  the  ship  had  never 
before  seen  a  white  man.  Many  of  them  still  used  bows 
and  arrows  in  hunting  caribou.  To  them  a  few  needles 
and  a  knife  or  so  were  great  wealth.  They  lived  alto- 
gether upon  the  fish  and  game  they  could  catch  or  kill, 
their  clothing  was  of  skins,  and  in  summer  they  lived  in 
skin  tents  and  in  winter  in  snow  igloos,  in  the  building  of 
which  they  were  very  expert. 

They  assumed  a  friendly  demeanor  toward  the  white 
strangers,  but  in  view  of  the  smallness  of  his  party 
Amundsen  thought  it  well  to  take  precautions  against  any 
change  of  mind.  With  the  idea  of  impressing  them  with 
the  white  man's  power,  the  explorers  secretly  placed  a 
powerful  charge  of  guncotton  under  an  empty  snow  hut 
and  laid  wires  to  it  from  the  ship.  Amundsen  then  as- 
sembled the  Eskimos  and  spoke  to  them  about  the  won- 
derful things  the  white  man  could  do  and  warned  them 
not  to  expose  themselves,  to  his   terrible  anger.     For 


236      TRAILIMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

example,  if  they  should  play  any  tricks  even  out  there 
by  the  snow  huts,  then  the  white  men  would  simply  sit 
quietly  on  board  and  then  ..."  With  a  terrific  report 
the  igloo  blew  up,  and  clouds  of  snow  burst  high  in  the 
air.    This  was  all  that  was  required." 

Throughout  their  long  stay  at  Gjohavn  the  explorers 
had  no  serious  trouble  with  the  Eskimos.  With  some 
they  became  really  good  friends.  Amundsen  had  a  real 
interest  in  the  natives  and  did  all  he  could  to  help  them. 
He  found  them  superior  in  most  ways  to  Eskimos  who 
had  come  in  closer  contact  with  white  men,  and  he  says: 
"My  sincerest  wish  for  our  friends  the  Nechilli  Eskimos 
is  that  civilization  may  never  reach  them." 

These  Eskimos  had  special  customs  which  they  ob- 
served, but  they  had  no  laws  or  magistrates.  Each  man 
did  what  seemed  best  in  his  own  eyes,  and  stood  in  little 
fear  of  punishment  for  misdeeds.  One  tragic  occurrence 
took  place  under  the  eyes  of  a  member  of  the  expedition. 
Among  the  Eskimos  was  a  man  named  Umiktuallu,  who 
lived  for  a  time  the  first  summer  in  a  tent  pitched  close 
to  the  magnetic  observation  house.  He  owned  an  old 
muzzle-loading  rifle,  which  he  had  traded  from  another 
Eskimo.  One  day  he  left  the  weapon  loaded,  and  the 
children  began  playing  v/ith  it.  While  the  rifle  was  in  the 
hands  of  a  foster-son  it  went  off  and  killed  Umiktuallu's 
own  eldest  son,  a  boy  of  seven.  The  father,  hearing  the 
sound  of  the  shot,  rushed  home,  saw  the  dead  boy,  and 
in  a  frenzy  stabbed  the  foster-son  to  death.  Later  he 
was  filled  with  remorse  for  the  deed,  but  the  other 
Eskimos  made  no  effort  to  punish  him. 

By  the  summer  of  1905  the  explorers  had  completed 
their  scientific  work  and  were  ready  to  proceed.  They 
had  mapped  the  coasts  round  about  and  had  fixed  the 


THE  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE  237 

position  of  the  Magnetic  Pole.  They  found  it  to  be  on 
the  west  coast  of  the  peninsula  of  Boothia  Felix,  about 
where  it  was  first  located  by  James  Ross  half  a  century 
before. 

Before  leaving  Gjohavn  they  paid  off  the  Eskimos  who 
had  aided  them.  In  addition  to  knives  and  other  articles, 
Amundsen  made  eleven  heaps  of  wood  and  iron  and  gave 
them  to  the  aborigines.  One  day  he  collected  together 
all  the  Eskimo  women  "  to  enrich  them  with  our  empty 
tins.  There  were  some  hundreds  of  empty  tins,  and  I 
had  put  them  together  in  a  large  heap  in  the  middle  of 
the  hill.  Then  I  had  the  womenfolk  arranged  round  the 
heap  in  a  ring  and  told  them  that  when  I  counted  three, 
they  might  '  go  for '  the  heap  and  get  all  they  could. 
The  men  arranged  themselves  behind  their  ladies:  One! 
two!  three!  and  in  they  rushed,  using  both  hands  as 
shovels ;  they  threw  the  tins  out  backwards  between  their 
legs — they  were  not  hampered  by  skirts — and  the  men 
grabbed  hold  of  the  flying  tins,  and  so  each  collected  his 
lot.  Laughter  and  noise,  shrieks  and  shouts,  tins  flying, 
men  rushing^  and  so  the  heap  was  cleared." 

Early  August  13,  1905,  the  anchor  was  raised,  and  the 
Gjoa  once  more  began  her  perilous  journey.  Fortunately 
conditions  were  favorable.  The  preceding  winter  had 
been  a  mild  one,  and  the  sea  was  comparatively  free  from 
ice.  In  one  place  the  passage  between  the  ice  and  an 
island  was  so  narrow  as  to  be  barely  wide  enough  for  the 
ship  to  pass  through,  but  through  she  got  and  safely. 
Four  days  of  careful  navigation  brought  them  to  the  west 
side  of  Cape  Colborne,  and  they  had  now  sailed  "  through 
the  hitherto  unsolved  link  in  the  Northwest  Passage." 

Ten  days  later,  off  Baring  Land,  a  vessel  was  sighted 
to  westward.     It  was  a  memorable  moment,  for  now 


238      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

they  could  truly  claim  that  the  Northwest  Passage, 
Amundsen's  dream  since  boyhood  had  been  accom- 
plished.   Says  he: 

"  This  very  moment  it  was  fulfilled.  I  had  a  peculiar 
sensation  in  my  throat;  I  was  somewhat  overworked  and 
tired,  and  I  suppose  it  was  weakness  on  my  part,  but  I 
could  find  tears  coming  to  my  eyes.  '  Vessel  in  sight!  ' 
The  words  were  magical.  My  home  and  those  dear  to 
me  at  once  appeared  to  me  as  if  stretching  out  their 
hands — 'Vessel  in  sight!  '  I  dressed  myself  in  no  time. 
When  ready,  I  stopped  a  moment  before  Nansen's  por- 
trait on  the  wall.  It  seemed  as  if  the  picture  had  come 
to  life,  as  if  he  winked  at  me,  nodding,  '  Just  what  I 
thought,  my  boy!  '  I  nodded  back,  smiling  and  happy, 
and  went  on  deck." 

The  vessel  proved  to  be  an  American  whaler,  and  from 
her  the  explorers  obtained  potatoes  and  onions — great 
delicacies — and  newspapers  that  were  several  months  old 
but  that  were  read  avidly  by  Amundsen  and  his  com- 
rades. 

At  this  time  the  explorers  expected  to  be  able  to  get 
out  of  the  Arctic  that  season  but  at  King  Point,  west 
of  the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie  River,  they  were  held  up 
by  ice  and  were  forced  to  spend  the  winter  there. 
Amundsen  and  a  whaling  captain  from  Herschel  Island 
farther  west  made  an  overland  trip  to  Eagle  City  on  the 
Yukon.  In  March  Gustav  J.  Wiik,  the  second  engineer 
and  assistant  in  magnetic  observations,  died,  to  the  great 
sorrow  of  all  his  comrades.  Amundsen  himself  was  much 
affected,  and  in  the  preface  to  his  book  on  the  trip  he 
says: 

"  A  loving  thought  will  again  and  again  travel  back  to 
the  lonely  grave  looking  out  on  the  boundless  ice-desert, 


THE  NORTHWEST  PASSAGE  239 

and  grateful  memories  will  arise  of  him  who  laid  down 
his  young  life  on  the  field  of  action." 

At  Herschel  Island,  which  the  Gjoa  reached  in  July, 
another  tragedy  occurred.  Among  the  Eskimo  who  fre- 
quented the  region  about  Gjoahavn  there  was  a  lad  of 
about  seventeen  named  Manni.  He  was  a  foster-son  of 
Umiktuallu,  the  Eskimo  who  had  murdered  another 
foster-son.  Manni  was  eager  to  accompany  the  Kab- 
lunas  to  their  own  land,  and,  partly  out  of  pity  for  him, 
they  had  agreed  to  take  him.  He  was  given  a  bath,  his 
hair  was  well  combed  and  was  treated  with  plenty  of 
insect-powder,  and  an  outfit  of  clothes  was  provided  for 
him.  He  soon  became  a  great  favorite  with  the  ex- 
plorers, being  willing  to  work  or  hunt,  while  his  happy 
laughter  "  banished  the  most  surly  airs."  He  even 
learned  to  read  and  write  a  little,  but  his  dream  of  seeing 
the  land  of  the  White  Man  was  never  realized.  One  day 
in  the  harbor  at  Herschel  Island  he  went  out  duck  hunt- 
ing. He  stood  up  in  his  little  boat  the  better  to  aim  at 
a  bevy  of  ducks  and  in  some  way  fell  out  of  it.  Like  all 
Eskimos  he  could  not  swim  a  stroke.  He  sank  and  was 
never  seen  again. 

On  the  last  day  of  August  the  Gjoa  arrived  safely  at 
Nome,  on  Bering  Sea,  and  the  crew  were  accorded  an 
enthusiastic  reception  by  the  people.  From  thence  the 
homeward  trip  was  easy. 

Thus,  after  more  than  three  centuries,  the  dream  of  a 
Northwest  Passage  was  finally  realized.  By  accomplish- 
ing it  Amundsen  won  rank  among  the  foremost  of  great 
explorers.  But  the  intrepid  Norwegian  was  not  content 
with  these  laurels.  In  1910  he  sailed  southward  to  the 
Antarctic  in  Nansen's  old  ship,  the  From.  On  Decem- 
ber 15,  191 1,  he  and  four  companions  planted  the  Nor- 


240     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

wegian  flag  at  the  South  Pole.  He  is  now  (1920)  in  the 
Arctic  seas,  seeking  to  reach  the  North  Pole. 

Among  modern  explorers  Amundsen  takes  equal  rank 
with  our  own  immortal  Peary.  He  is  a  man  of  great 
humanity,  strong  yet  gentle.  In  the  recent  Groat  War 
he  returned  to  Germany  all  the  decorations  bestowed 
upon  him  by  that  country.  He  did  not  wish,  he  said,  to 
be  honored  bv  a  country  guilty  of  such  barbarities. 

All  honor  to  the  noble  Norwegian! 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   COMING   OF   THE   SETTLERS 

For  about  three  decades  the  old  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
competed  with  the  younger  Northwest  Company  for  the 
trade  of  the  great  Fur  Land.  In  some  places  at  certain 
times  the  rivalry  was  of  a  friendly  character,  and  in- 
stances are  not  wanting  where  opposing  traders  helped 
each  other,  especially  in  times  of  danger.  But  each  Com- 
pany wished  to  secure  a  monopoly  of  the  trade,  and  it 
was  inevitable  that  many  clashes  of  one  kind  or  another 
should  take  place  far  out  in  the  wilderness,  where  neither 
the  laws  of  man  nor  God  were  much  respected.  Intrigues 
with  the  Indians,  sporadic  instances  of  armed  conflicts 
and  even  murder,  seizure  of  goods  and  destruction  of 
rival  posts  finally  developed  into  open  warfare — to  blood- 
shed in  the  wilderness  and  to  legal  conflicts  in  Canada 
and  England. 

Differing  on  most  other  thinats,  both  Companies  were 
agreed  on  this:  neither  wished  to  see  the  Fur  Land  set- 
tled, for  settlers  meant  the  disappearance  of  fur-bearing 
animals.  The  Companies  even  preferred  that  servants 
leaving  their  employment  should  return  to  their  old 
homes  in  Canada  or  Great  Britain  rather  than  remain 
in  the  Northwest.  Nevertheless,  a  considerable  number 
of  such  persons  did  remain  in  the  country,  while  the 
half-breed  population  grew  apace,  for  it  was  the  common 
custom  of  the  country  for  the  white  men  to  mate,  tempo- 
rarily or  permanently,  with  squaws. 

241 


242      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

There  was  not,  in  fact,  a  single  white  woman  in  the 
whole  of  the  Northwest  until  about  1803.  She  was  an 
Orkney  lass  who  followed  her  lover  thither  clad  in  men's 
clothes.  For  two  or  three  years  she  managed  to  keep 
her  secret  from  all  except  perhaps  a  few,  but  in  Decem- 
ber, 1807,  being  ill,  she  revealed  her  true  sex  to  Alex- 
ander Henry  at  his  Pembina  River  post.  The  same  day 
she  was,  in  Henry's  language^  "  safely  delivered  of  a  fine 
boy,"  the  first  all-white  child,  according  to  some  accounts, 
ever  born  in  the  Northwest.  The  first  white  woman 
openly  to  come  to  the  Northwest  was  the  bride  of 
J.  Baptiste  Lajimoniere,  a  voyageur  in  the  employ  of 
the  Hudson's  Bay  post  at  Pembina.  She  created  a  great 
sensation  among  the  Indians  and  even  among  the  white 
men,  many  of  whom  had  not  seen  a  woman  of  their  own 
race  for  years  and  years.  According  to  some  authorities 
a  daughter  was  born  to  this  French  Canadian  couple  on 
January  6,  1807.  If  so,  this  child,  which  was  called 
Reine,  was  the  first  white  child  born  in  the  Northwest. 

The  first  systematic  effort  to  colonize  the  Canadian 
Northwest  was  undertaken  by  a  young  Scottish  noble- 
man, Thomas  Douglas  of  Selkirk.  Well  educated  and 
possessed  of  most  things  considered  desirable  in  life,  in- 
cluding a  beautiful  young  wife,  who  was  a  daughter  of 
one  of  the  heaviest  shareholders  in  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company,  Selkirk  joined  with  many  other  admirable 
qualities  a  philanthropic  desire  to  better  the  condition  of 
others  less  fortunate  than  himself.  At  that  time  great 
poverty  existed  in  the  Highlands  of  his  native  country, 
and  changes  in  farming  methods  had  deprived  thousands 
of  honest,  toiling  people  of  the  means  of  livelihood. 
Mackenzie's  explorations  had  deeply  interested  Selkirk. 
It  seemed  to  the  young  nobleman  that  in  the  vast  region 


o 
en 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SETTLERS  243 

of  the  American  Northwest  there  lay  rich  lands  where 
these  poor  people  might  grow  prosperous  or  even  rich. 

Owing  to  the  competition  of  the  Northwesters,  the 
business  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  had  fallen  to  a 
low  ebb  and  there  had  been  only  two  dividends  paid  in 
ten  years.  Selkirk's  wife's  family  already  owned  a  large 
block  of  stock,  and  the  young  lord  quietly  bought  enough 
more  so  that  the  two  families  combined  controlled  the 
Company. 

In  181 1  Lord  Selkirk  obtained  from  the  Company  a 
grant  of  land  in  the  Red  River  region  larger  than  the 
present  Manitoba.  Over  this  region  he  was  to  possess 
proprietary  and  governmental  powers  that  made  him 
practically  a  feudal  lord.  Over  a  hundred  people,  largely 
Highlanders,  Orkneymen,  and  Irishmen,  were  sent  out 
the  first  year  by  way  of  Hudson  Bay;  other  shiploads 
sailed  later.  The  colonists  suffered  great  hardships  on 
shipboard,  on  the  long  journey  from  the  Bay  to  Red 
River,  and  even  after  their  arrival  in  the  colony. 

As  fur  traders  the  Northwesters  naturally  looked  upon 
the  colony  with  wintry  eyes,  for  its  success  would  strike 
at  the  very  existence  of  their  trade.  Furthermore,  Sel- 
kirk's agents  attempted  to  drive  the  Northwesters  out  of 
the  region,  claiming  exclusive  rights.  In  181 5  the  North- 
westers forcibly  broke  up  the  colony  and  dispersed  the 
colonists.  But  more  colonists  and  Hudson  Bay  people 
came  and  under  the  leadership  of  Colin  Robertson  and 
Governor  Semple  got  the  upper  hand.  The  North- 
westers rallied  half-breeds  and  Indians  to  their  aid  and 
in  June,  181 6,  massacred  Semple  and  a  number  of  his 
followers  at  Seven  Oaks.  Selkirk  soon  after  arrived  in 
the  region  with  reinforcements  and  regained  control. 
For  five  years  thereafter  desultory  warfare  continued  be- 


244      TRAIL^IAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

tween  the  two  Companies,  but  the  conflict  was  ruining 
them  both  and  finally  in  1821  the  rivals  agreed  to  coalesce 
under  the  name  of  the  older  Company. 

The  new  Hudson's  Bay  Company  exercised  almost 
absolute  sway  over  a  region  larger  than  Europe^  extending 
from  Labrador  and  the  Arctic  coast  to  California.  Over 
part  of  this  region  the  Company  held  its  power  by  grant 
from  the  British  government;  elsewhere  it  had  simply 
assumed  control  and  urged  in  support  of  its  pretensions 
certain  vague  clauses  in  the  original  charter. 

The  union  was  a  good  thing  for  the  stockholders  and 
also  for  their  Indian  wards.  The  Conripany  entered  upon 
a  new  era  of  great  prosperity,  while  it  was  able  to  adopt 
a  better  policy  toward  the  Indians.  Though  jealous  of 
its  rights  of  trade,  the  Company's  attitude  toward  the 
Indians  was  a  paternal  one.  Naturally  the  Company 
desired  the  Indians  to  be  healthy  and  in  good  condition, 
else  they  could  not  catch  fur;  it  even  made  some  efforts 
to  educate  them  mentally  and  morally.  While  two  com- 
panies were  in  the  field  the  rival  traders  naturally  sup- 
plied goods  that  were  most  pleasing  to  the  Indians,  for 
upon  attracting  the  Indians  depended  the  trader's  success. 
It  happened,  of  course,  that  in  these  circumstances  many 
articles  found  their  way  to  the  Indian  that  were  of  no 
use  to  him  or  that  were  even  positively  harmful.  Fire- 
water belonged  in  the  latter  class.  But  when  one  Com- 
pany obtained  control  a  different  policy  was  adopted. 
A  certain  quantity  of  beads  and  other  frivolous  gewgaws 
were,  of  course,  allowed,  but  the  main  staples  of  trade 
were  guns,  ammunition,  knives,  and  other  articles  that 
were  of  real  utility  and  that  would  help  the  Indian  in 
the  struggle  for  a  livelihood.  The  trade  in  liquor  was, 
however,  too  strongly  intrenched  to  be  abolished  at  once. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SETTLERS  245 

The  Indians  demanded  it,  and  often  would  not  sell  furs 
or  pemmican  unless  the  beloved  poison  was  supplied 
them.  Ultimately,  however,  the  Company  forbade  the 
use  of  the  article  except  in  border  regions  where  the 
competition  of  outside  traders  must  be  met.  In  time  a 
Dominion  law  forbade  under  heavy  penalties  the  sale  or 
gift  of  intoxicants  to  an  Indian.  Had  the  old  traffic 
been  continued  there  would  be  few  Indians  left  alive 
in  Canada  to-day. 

In  the  Oregon  country  the  Company  fought  a  long 
and  losing  battle  against  the  tide  of  American  settlers, 
and  the  end  came  when  America's  right  to  Oregon  was 
recognized  in  the  treaty  of  1846.  The  gold  rush  of  the 
'50's  into  British  Columbia  resulted  in  the  Company's 
surrendering  its  monopoly  of  trade  and  its  governmenta. 
rights  in  that  region,  though  it  still  continued  to  trade 
there  in  competition  with  others.  Elsewhere  the  Com- 
pany maintained  its  feudal  sway  for  almost  half  a  cen- 
tury after  the  two  rival  companies  consolidated. 

That  it  held  control  so  long  was  due  to  the  slow  set- 
tlement of  the  region.  Much  of  it  never  could  sustain 
a  large  population,  and  in  Rupert's  Land,  including  what 
are  now  the  prairie  provinces  of  Manitoba,  Saskatchewan, 
and  Alberta,  there  was  not,  even  as  late  as  1870,  a  single 
settlement,  as  distinguished  from  a  fur  post,  except  in  the 
Red  River  country,  where  a  few  thousand  whites  and 
half-breeds  hunted  and  trapped  and  occasionally  devoted 
a  little  effort  to  cultivating  the  soil.  The  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  naturally  did  not  want  farmers  in  its  domain, 
nor  did  any  one  have  any  conception  of  the  real  agri- 
cultural possibilities  of  the  country.  Furthermore,  the 
Northwest  was  so  remote  that  immigrants  could  not  get 
into  it  except  by  tremendous  efforts,  nor  was  there  any 


246      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

way  of  sending  their  agricultural  products  out  after  the 
people  had  arrived.  Ultimately  a  small  commerce  sprang 
up  by  river  and  creaking  carts  with  the  frontier  town 
of  St.  Paul  hundreds  of  miles  to  the  southward,  but  for 
a  long  time  the  Red  River  settlers  formed  a  community 
almost  as  much  apart  to  themselves  as  if  they  had  resided 
on  the  moon. 

The  Company's  fur  monopoly  and  other  grievance-^ 
ultimately  provoked  an  armed  uprising  in  Red  River 
under  the  leadership  of  Louis  Riel.  This  uprising  and 
the  confederation  movement  in  Canada  proper  brought 
about  a  situation  which  resulted  in  October,  1869,  in  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  relinquishing  all  charter  and  ex- 
clusive rights  in  its  domain.  In  return  the  Dominion 
government  paid  the  Company  three  hundred  thousand 
pounds,  allowed  it  to  retain  the  land  where  its  forts  stood, 
and  granted  it  one-twentieth  of  the  arable  land  in  its 
territory,  and  these  land  concessions  ultimately  proved 
to  be  of  immense  value.  The  Company  continued  to 
trade  as  of  old  but  without  any  exclusive  rights. 

Even  then  the  land  filled  slowly.  But  a  few  far-sighted 
and  courageous  men  like  Donald  Smith  (later  Lord 
Strathcona)  and  Alexander  Mackenzie  (later  Lord 
Mount  Royal)  perceived  the  real  possibilities  of  the 
Northwest  and,  despite  tremendous  obstacles,  built 
the  transcontinental  Canadian  Pacific  Railroad,  finished 
in  1886.  It  has  been  said  that  "  Egypt  is  the  gift  of 
the  Nile,"  and  it  might  with  almost  equal  truth  be  said 
that  the  Canadian  Northwest  is  the  gift  of  this  railroad, 
for  it  made  a  hitherto  remote  region  easily  accessible 
to  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Years  before  a  governor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany had  testified  before  a  committeee  of  the  British 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  SETTLERS  247 

House  of  Commons  that  agriculture  could  not  be  carried 
on  successfully  in  Rupert's  Land.  He  believed  what  he 
said,  and  his  view  was  generally  accepted  even  in  Canada. 
But  even  before  the  building  of  the  railroad  men  knev/ 
that  the  prairie  country  would  grow  wheat  as  good  as  any 
in  the  world;  that  oats,  flax,  barley,  potatoes,  and  many 
other  crops  would  thrive  there  in  great  profusion. 

After  the  building  of  the  railroad  the  land  filled  rap- 
idly. Settlers  came  from  eastern  Canada,  the  British 
Isles,  from  all  over  the  world,  even  from  the  United 
States,  and  these  last  were  the  best  of  all,  for  they  knew 
what  was  needed  to  succeed  and  they  brought  in  more 
money  than  did  the  others.  Year  after  year  more 
"  claims  "  were  taken  up,  more  "  sod  huts  "  were  built, 
more  of  the  land  was  broken  for  crops.  The  tide  of 
settlement  swept  westward  from  Manitoba  over  the  roll- 
ing plains  until  the  foothills  of  the  Rockies  and  even 
remote  Peace  River  were  reached  by  the  homesteaders. 
Meanwhile  in  British  Columbia  gold,  copper,  lumber, 
salmon,  and  other  natural  products  brought  an  influx 
of  settlers  to  that  mountainous  land. 

As  in  most  new  countries  enthusiasm  sometimes  ran 
wild.  Farming  was  attempted  in  arid  places  where 
Nature  never  intended  that  crops  should  be  grown  with- 
out irrigation,  cities  were  laid  out  and  lots  sold  far  be- 
yond the  needs  of  this  generation;  boom  times  were  fol- 
lowed by  hard  times;  optimism  changed  to  pessimism; 
ruin  came  to  thousands  who  believed  themselves  rich. 
Underneath  all,  however,  lay  a  substratum  of  real  accom- 
plishment; and  the  net  result  is  to-day  that  the  Prairie 
Provinces  and  British  Columbia  are  permanently  settled, 
while  the  future  is  full  of  hope. 

And  the  true  mettle  of  these  people  of  "  the  Last  Best 


248      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

West  "  was  proved  by  the  valor  cf  their  sons  in  the 
Great  War! 

After  all,  however,  only  the  southern  fringe  of  the 
land  is  really  occupied.  In  this  fringe  are  railroads,  and 
mines,  and  farms,  and  great  cities  like  Vancouver  and 
Victoria,  Edmonton,  Calgary,  and  Winnipeg.  But  north 
of  the  fringe,  except  for  a  few  thousand  settlers  on  the 
plains  of  the  lower  Peace,  lies  the  yet  untenanted  Domain 
of  the  North,  still  almost  primeval,  a  region  two-thirds 
as  big  as  the  United  States.  Here  are  a  few  thousand 
trappers  and  traders  of  white  and  mixed  blood;  here 
dwell,  almost  as  of  old,  the  descendants  of  the  aborigines 
who  knew  Radisson  and  Hearne  and  Mackenzie.  Here, 
as  of  old,  the  great  Company  (with  some  lesser  rivals) 
still  holds  sway.  "  Its  canoe  brigades  still  bring  in  furs 
to  the  far  fur  posts.  Its  mid-winter  dog  trains  still  set 
the  bells  tinkling  over  the  lonely  wastes  of  Northern 
snows  and  it  still  sells  as  much  fur  at  its  great  annual 
sales  as  in  its  palmiest  days." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   BROTHERHOOD   OF   TRAPPERS   AND   PROSPECTORS 
OF   TO-DAY 

One  autumn  near  the  McLeod  River  in  western  Alberta 
I  happened  upon  a  slim,  forlorn-looking  boy,  probably 
about  eighteen  years  old,  who  had  come  all  the  way  from 
western  Pennsylvania,  where  he  had  done  a  little  "  barn- 
yard trapping,"  in  order  to  have  a  go  at  big  game  and 
make  a  fortune  out  of  the  marten,  fisher,  l5nix,  otter,  and 
beaver  he  could  catch. 

He  had  pitched  his  little  tent  in  a  grove  of  jack-pines 
beside  the  right  of  way  of  the  unfinished  transcontinental 
railroad  and  was  waiting  for  his  partner,  who  was  riding 
their  only  cayuse  across  country  from  Edmonton,  a 
hundred  and  thirty  miles  eastward.  While  waiting  he 
had  set  some  traps  and  had  caught — a  weasel!  He  had 
expected  to  find  himself  in  a  good  trapping  country  at 
this  point  and  was  much  discouraged  to  learn  that  he 
still  had  a  long  and  toilsome  journey  to  make  before  he 
would  reach  a  region  where  a  living  could  be  made  catch- 
ing fur.  He  spoke  of  grizzlies  with  bated  breath  and 
wanted  my  opinion  as  to  whether  his  powerful  .35  caliber 
Winchester,  1895  model,  was  big  enough  for  these 
animals. 

"  Yes,  or  for  an  elephant,"  I  assured  him,  knowing  that 
in  that  country  the  grizzly  was  almost  as  extinct  as  the 
dodo.     "  The  main  trouble  will  be  to  find  the  grizzly." 

I  have  often  wondered  since  what  became  of  the  little 

249 


250      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

chap,  whether  he  did  manage  to  make  a  go  of  it,  and 
whether  he  ever  got  his  bear.  He  may  have  been  gritty 
enough  to  stick,  or  he  may  have  taken  an  early  train 
back  for  the  Pennsylvania  farm,  but,  at  any  rate,  his 
case  illustrates  one  source  from  which  the  picturesque 
brotherhood  of  trappers  and  prospectors  is  fed.  I  class 
the  two  together,  for  in  the  remote  Northwest,  where  they 
still  flourish,  practicallj^  every  trapper  at  some  time  in 
his  career  tries  his  hand  at  locating  the  hiding  place  of 
the  root  of  all  evil,  and  practically  every  prospector  is 
repeatedly  driven  to  seeking  pelts  in  order  to  make  a 
grubstake  for  another  search  for  a  rich  bar. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  scale,  so  far  as  age  is  concerned, 
stands  an  old  Dane,  who  has  sought  fortune  and  failed 
to  find  it  in  half  the  diggings  of  the  far  Northwest  and 
has  now  settled  down  to  do  a  little  trading  and  trapping 
at  the  point  where  the  mighty  Peace  River  begins  to 
burst  its  way  through  the  black  wall  of  the  Rockies.  His 
one  great  regret  is  that  he  did  not  go  to  the  Klondike 
with  a  certain  friend  in  '98. 

"  We  had  two  hundred  dollars  apiece,"  he  relates 
gloomily.  "  I  heard  the  Mounted  Police  at  Chilkoot 
Pass  were  turning  back  everybody  who  did  not  have 
five  hundred,  so  I  changed  my  mind  and  said  I  wouldn't 
go.  He  swore  that  the  devil  himself  couldn't  turn  him 
back.  He  went  to  the  Klondike  and  came  back  with  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  I  went  to  Parsnip  River  and 
came  back  with  the  rheumatism." 

Some  trappers  and  prospectors  are  misfits  anywhere 
except  on  the  border;  a  few  are  fugitives  from  justice. 
One  trapper  of  the  last  mentioned  class  committed  rob- 
bery and  murder  in  lower  British  Columbia  and  sought 
refuge  in  the  upper  Finlay  country,  where  for  several 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  ^51 

years  he  managed  to  operate  uncaptured,  obtaining  his 
supplies  by  stealth.  What  became  of  him  ultimately  is 
not  known.  He  may  have  crossed  the  border  into 
Alaska,  or  he  may  have  met  death  alone  in  the  wintry 
solitudes. 

But  most  of  the  brotherhood  of  trappers  and  pros- 
pectors are  attracted  by  the  wild,  free  life,  with  its  op- 
portunities for  living  next  to  Nature  and  indulging 
propensities  for  hunting  and  fishing.  The  trapper  calls 
no  man  master,  and  I  doubt  not  that  this  fact  alone  has 
much  to  do  with  his  v;illingness  to  bear  the  hardships 
inseparable  from  the  life. 

Of  hardships  there  are  plenty.  Consider,  for  example, 
the  life  of  a  certain  trapper  I  know,  namely  "  Shorty  " 
Webber,  a  little  Dutchman,  with  a  broad  body  and  a 
broader  smile.  Shorty's  line  at  the  time  of  which 
I  speak  lay  far  up  Finlay  River  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Deserter's  Canyon.  To  reach  this  remote  mountain 
region  in  the  first  place  he  took  the  route  from  Prince 
George  by  way  of  Giscome  Portage,  Crooked  River,  Pack 
River,  Parsnip  River,  and  Finlay  River.  The  first  part 
of  his  lonely  journey  was  not  especially  difficult,  for  it 
was  downstream  work,  but  then  he  had  to  pole  his  heavy 
dugout  canoe,  containing  all  his  outfit,  up  the  swift  and 
turbulent  Finlay,  and  many  were  the  rapids  up  which 
he  simply  had  to  wade  and  "  walk  "  his  craft. 

Arrived  at  last  at  his  trapping  ground,  he  must  build 
his  cabin  and  chink  it  carefully  with  moss  or  mud  to 
keep  out  the  wind.  He  must  then  build,  high  up  on 
the  stumps  of  trees,  a  water-tight  cache,  in  which  to  put 
his  supplies,  safe  from  bears,  wolverines,  mice,  and 
packrats.  He  must  cut  and  drag  to  his  door  a  supply  of 
firewood. 


252      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Next  he  sets  out  to  select  his  trap  line,  cutting  a 
narrow  trail  through  the  thick  bush  and  blazing  trees 
every  few  rods.  Along  the  line  he  builds  two  other 
cabins,  smaller  and  cruder  than  the  first.  He  also  selects 
the  best  places  to  set  his  traps,  makes  a  few  deadfalls, 
and  is  constantly  on  the  alert  for  a  chance  to  kill  a 
moose,  caribou,  or  bear  in  order  to  assure  a  stock  of 
meat  for  himself  and  for  baiting  his  traps.  Even  in  the 
remote  wilderness  this  task  of  killing  sufficient  meat  is 
by  no  means  the  simple  matter  that  it  sounds,  and  it  is 
unsafe  for  a  trapper  to  rely  upon  beinig  able  to  add  largely 
to  his  larder  in  this  way. 

Shorty  has  come  into  the  country  in  August,  and,  by 
the  time  the  frosts  have  brought  down  the  leaves  from 
birches  and  balsam  poplars  and  the  fur  is  beginning  to 
be  prime,  he  is  ready.  He  sets  and  baits  his  traps  and 
deadfalls.  In  order  to  keep  the  traps  from  being  cov- 
ered by  the  snow  he  sets  many  on  the  tops  of  stumps  of 
trees  he  has  cut  down,  or  else  in  notches  chopped  in  the 
standing  trunks.  As  the  snow  grows  deeper,  he  is  often 
obliged  to  cut  higher  notches,  and  I  have  seen  such 
notches  twenty  or  thirty  feet  high. 

Early  in  the  fall  Shorty's  task  of  making  the  round 
of  his  traps  is  comparatively  easy — little  more  than 
tramping  four  days  over  the  sixty-mile  trail,  with  a  small 
pack  on  his  back.  But  as  time  passes  the  weather  grows 
colder  and  the  snow  deeper;  the  temperature  falls  far 
below  zero,  and  the  snow  gets  so  deep  that  he  cannot 
travel  except  on  snowshoes.  There  come  days  when  the 
temperature  is  forty,  fifty,  even  sixty  below,  when  wild 
winds  have  filled  the  trail  with  soft  and  fleecy  snow  and 
heaped  it  in  great  drifts,  when  every  foot  of  the  way 
must  be  broken  anew.    It  is  such  times  as  this  that  test 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  253 

the  mettle  of  a  trapper.  The  lazy  ones,  those  who  fear 
cold  and  love  the  ease  and  warmth  of  the  cabin,  may- 
remain  within  for  weeks,  but  our  man  is  built  of  sterner 
stuff.  To  venture  out  in  the  very  worst  of  weather  would, 
of  course,  be  little  short  of  suicidal,  nor  would  it  be 
worth  while,  for  "fur"  "runs"  but  little  at  such  a 
time.  But  there  comes  a  time  when  the  wind  has  fallen, 
when  the  air  is  warmer,  when  marten  and  fisher  and  other 
furred  animals  venture  forth,  and  he  sets  out  once  more 
to  make  the  round. 

The  first  few  traps  he  finds  untouched,  and  three  of 
them  are  completely  hidden  under  the  snow.  He 
remedies  the  defect  and  pushes  on;  Here  is  a  trap 
where  a  hungry  red  squirrel  has  tried  to  take  the  bait 
and  has  been  caught  by  a  forepaw.  He  is  dead,  frozen 
as  stiff  and  hard  as  a  stick  of  wood.  The  trapper  curses 
the  unlucky  thief,  resets  the  trap,  and  puts  the  squirrel 
in  his  pack  for  use  as  bait  farther  on.  Ha,  yonder  is 
luck,  perhaps!  The  trap  in  the  notch  in  a  big  jack- 
pine  on  the  hillside  ahead  is  not  there;  the  snow  looks 
trampled  down.  But,  pshaw,  there  is  blood  scattered 
over  the  snow,  and  of  a  fine  marten  nothing  remains  but 
some  bits  of  fur  and  a  foot  sticking  fast  in  the  trap. 
Some  big  tracks,  with  large  claw  marks,  tell  the  story. 
A  wretched  wolverine  has  happened  that  way  and  has 
made  a  meal  off  thirty  dollars  worth  of  fur.  Worst  of 
all,  the  tracks  lead  along  the  blazed  trail  toward  other 
traps. 

With  tense  muscles  and  tongue  muttering  impreca- 
tions. Shorty  reshoulders  his  pack  and  trudges  along  the 
trail  after  the  hated  beast.  It  is  as  he  feared,  the  next 
trap  has  been  cunningly  sprung  and  the  bait  taken.  It 
is  so  with  the  next  and  the  next.    For  several  miles  it  is 


254     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

the  same  story,  except  that  a  few  of  the  traps  to  the 
leeward  of  the  trail  have  escaped  the  wolverine's  nose. 
Finally  there  is  another  trap  in  which  a  marten  has  been 
caught,  and  again  only  some  bits  of  fur  and  splashes 
of  blood  remain.  Here,  however,  the  wolverine,  being 
full  of  meat,  turns  aside.  Relieved  but  puffing  out  curses 
like  a  locomotive.  Shorty  passes  on,  vowing  that  some 
day  he  will  have  revenge. 

Miles  farther  on,  in  a  deep  gulch  among  the  moun- 
tains, he  comes  once  more  to  a  trap  where  the  snow 
has  been  disturbed.  As  he  draws  nearer^  there  is  a 
snarl,  and  an  animal  with  a  demoniacal  scowl  on  its 
tooth-filled  face  backs  away  as  far  as  the  chain  of  the 
trap  will  permit.  The  trapper  laughs;  the  scowl  scares 
him  not  in  the  least.  No  use  wasting  a  cartridge  here, 
for  of  all  animals  the  lynx  is  one  of  the  most  cowardly. 
A  stout  club  ends  the  beast's  career,  and  soon  his  skin 
is  off  and  in  the  pack,  along  with  much  of  the  meat;  for 
lynx  meat,  be  it  said,  is  not  only  good  for  bait  and  dog 
food  but  is  considered  toothsome  by  trappers  as  well. 

Late  in  the  afternoon,  weary  with  breaking  trail,  the 
trapper,  still  far  from  his  next  cabin,  selects  a  sheltered 
spot  in  thick  spruce  timber  and  proceeds  to  camp.  First 
he  clears  away  the  snow  on  a  spot  as  large  as  a  small 
room  and  builds  a  fire  near  one  end.  Facing  the  fire, 
his  little  open-faced  tent  is  next  set  ud,  after  which  he 
cuts  spruce  boughs  for  a  bed  and  arranges  his  blankets. 
He  has  already  hung  two  small  pots  full  of  snow  over 
the  fire  to  melt,  but,  though  he  is  hungry,  he  has  not 
time  to  cook  supper  yet.  While  there  is  still  light  he 
must  cut  a  pile  of  logs  to  keep  the  fire  going  through 
the  night,  and  only  when  this  task  is  done  does  he  bake 
a  bannock  in  the  frying  pan,  fry  the  big  blue  grouse  he 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  255 

shot  on  the  way,  and  brew  his  tea.  After  a  pipe  of 
tobacco,  ignoring  the  beauties  of  a  magnificent  aurora — 
"  the  dance  of  the  spirits,"  as  the  Crees  call  it — he  rolls 
himself  in  his  blankets  and  falls  asleep.  In  a  couple  of 
hours  the  fire  dies  down,  and  the  bitter  cold  strikes  in 
through  his  thin  covering;  half-frozen,  he  must  get  up 
and  pile  on  more  logs.    Thus  passes  the  long  night. 

Five  days  later,  tired,  hungry,  with  soot  blackened 
face  and  one  foot  touched  with  frost,  he  reaches  his 
home  cabin  and  indulges  in  a  grand  feed  of  beans, 
bannock,  and  lynx  mulligan.  It  has  taken  him  two  days 
longer  than  usual  to  make  the  round,  for  the  snow  has 
been  very  trying,  especially  so  for  one  with  such  short 
legs.  He  has  brought  with  him  the  skin  of  the  lynx 
and  the  unskinned  carcasses  of  two  martens.  The 
weather  has  not  been  favorable  for  a  big  catch,  for  even 
fur-bearing  animals  do  not  like  to  stir  abroad  much 
during  intense  cold,  and  besides  the  wolverine  has 
created  havoc  along  the  line.  On  some  rounds,  particu- 
larly in  November  and  March,  when  fur  is  running,  he 
will  do  better;  on  others  not  so  well. 

Two  or  three  times  in  the  winter  he  will  be  visited  by 
bands  of  hungry  Siwash,  who,  if  he  will  permit,  will  beg 
everything  he  has  and  eat  him  out  of  cache  and  cabin.  At 
Christmas  he  probably  makes  the  long  trip  to  the  little 
log  trading  post  known  as  Fort  Grahame,  down  the 
Finlay,  and,  with  three  or  four  other  white  trappers  and 
the  Indian  population  of  the  region,  spends  a  week  of 
wild  social  relaxation.  At  the  end  of  that  time  he  re- 
turns to  his  solitary  cabin,  taking  a  few  supplies,  prob- 
ably tobacco  and  tea,  bought  at  ruinous  prices  of  the 
great  Company. 

In  the  spring  when  the  ice  breaks  up  and  the  snow 


256      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

melts,  he  has  a  go  at  trapping  bears  and  beaver,  and, 
when  fur  is  no  longer  prime,  he  pulls  his  traps,  stows 
his  most  precious  belongings  in  his  cache,  leaves  his 
cabin  door  unlocked,  and  floats  down  the  river  to 
market  his  catch.  For  months  he  has  been  looking  for- 
ward to  the  trip,  and  when,  after  three  weeks  of  fighting 
wild  waters,  he  reaches  Prince  George  on  the  Fraser,  he 
proceeds  to  have  what  he  considers  "  a  good  time." 

In  cases  where  two  trappers  go  into  partnership,  they 
lay  out  a  much  longer  trap  line  and  have  a  central  cabin 
at  which  they  meet  on  certain  appointed  days.  Thus 
they  are  able  to  enjoy  each  other's  society  and  avoid  the 
terrific  strain  of  months  of  loneliness,  while,  in  case  one 
becomes  ill  or  meets  with  an  accident,  he  has  some  one 
to  take  care  of  him. 

The  plan  has  one  great  disadvantage  in  that  two  men 
who  enter  into  this  sort  of  partnership  often  find  it  im- 
possible to  keep  on  good  terms  through  the  long  and 
gloomy  winter  season.  They  will  go  out  in  the  fall  the 
best  of  friends,  but  there  comes  a  time  when  the  liver 
of  one  or  both  is  out  of  order  and  tempers  flare  up.  A 
fight  not  infrequently  follows,  sometimes  a  manly  con- 
test, fist  and  skill;  sometimes  with  knives,  guns,  or  any 
weapon  that  happens  to  be  handy.  More  than  one 
bloody  tragedy  has  taken  place  far  away  in  the  depths 
of  the  forest  with  no  other  witnesses  than  the  white 
and  silent  mountains. 

The  hate  that  two  human  beings  can  develop  when 
alone  under  such  circumstances  passes  belief.  In  the 
spring,  if  both  are  alive,  they  go  out,  rifles  in  hand,  each 
narrowly  watching  the  other  for  any  signs  of  murderous 
intent.  Arrived  outside,  a  change  of  scene  and  the 
society  of  other  men  sometimes  causes  the  bitterness  to 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  257 

evaporate  when  the  sun  grows  warm;  by  fall  the  two 
may  be  such  fast  friends  again  that  they  renew  the  part- 
nership and  return  to  the  bush — perhaps  to  reenact  a 
similar  drama  of  quarreling  and  hatred. 

Not  all  such  quarrels  have  so  tame  an  ending.  On 
my  last  trip  to  Peace  River  I  heard  of  two  tragedies 
resulting  from  controversies  between  trapping  partners. 
The  summer  before  there  had  come  to  Hudson's  Hope 
a  Mexican  and  an  American,  both  desperate  men  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  revolutions  that  made  the  names 
of  Madero,  Huerta,  Villa,  and  Carranza  known  through- 
out the  world.  The  two  men  located  a  trap  line  on 
the  eastern  slope  of  the  Rockies  in  the  remote  region 
from  which  flow  tributaries  of  the  Liard  and  Peace 
rivers.  Those  who  knew  them  say  that  they  were  con- 
stantly quarreling  with  each  other,  and  in  the  spring 
some  difference  of  opinion  brought  affairs  to  a  crisis. 
Both  drew  their  revolvers,  and  continued  firing  until 
both  were  dead  or  mortally  wounded.  When  the  tragedy 
was  discovered  by  other  trappers,  the  bodies  were  left 
lying  where  they  fell  until  a  magistrate  from  St.  Johns 
could  view  them.  My  old  friend  Jim  Beattie,  who  keeps 
the  portage  at  Hudson's  Hope,  furnished  horses  to  take 
the  magistrate  to  the  scene  of  the  murder  and  acted  as 
guide  and  packer.  The  round  trip  took  sixteen  or  seven- 
teen days. 

The  same  winter  another  equally  tragic  occurrence  took 
place  much  nearer  Hudson's  Hope.  Two  trappers  named 
Holtmeier  and  Christensen  had  a  cabin  four  miles  above 
the  head  of  the  great  canyon.  One  day  another  trapper 
happened  to  stop  at  the  cabin  and  on  looking  inside  saw 
the  frozen  body  of  Holtmeier  lying  in  a  pool  of  blood 
on  the  floor.    Examination  of  the  body  disclosed  over  a 


258      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

dozen  bullet  wounds;  in  fact,  it  was  shot  almost  to 
pieces.  Christensen  had  disappeared  and  has  never  been 
heard  from  since. 

Various  theories  have  been  propounded  to  account  for 
the  murder.  Some  think  that  Christensen  went  insane 
and  murdered  his  partner,  then  rambled  off  into  the 
woods.  Others  believe  that  the  two  probably  had  a  fight 
in  which  Christensen,  the  smaller  man,  was  worsted; 
that  he  then  crawled  up  into  his  bunk,  which  was  raised 
several  feet  above  the  floor,  and  that  from  this  position 
he  shot  Holtmeier  down.  In  support  of  this  theory  they 
point  to  the  fact  that  some  of  the  shots  ranged  down- 
ward. Whatever  the  cause  of  the  murder  it  is  clear  that 
Christensen  was  either  insane  or  mad  with  anger,  for 
he  continued  to  shoot  until  the  magazine  of  his  gun  was 
empty. 

The  snow  was  deep  and  the  temperature  far  below  zero 
when  the  murder  took  place.  Investigation  seemed  to 
show  that  Christensen  did  not  go  down  Peace  River,  and 
to  reach  the  habitations  of  men  in  any  other  direction 
he  would  have  had  to  travel  hundreds  of  miles  through 
mountain  fastnesses.  The  generally  accepted  view  is  that 
the  murderer  perished  of  cold  or  hunger. 

The  trapper  who  works  alone  avoids  all  such  unpleas- 
antness as  this,  but  he  has  to  pass  many  months  with  no 
other  companions  than  his  dogs,  and  in  case  he  meets  with 
accident,  he  has  no  helping  hand  to  aid  him. 

On  the  upper  Brazeau  River  in  the  foothills  of  the 
Albertan  Rockies  I  once  saw  a  crude  wooden  tepee  con- 
nected with  which  was  a  story  of  this  sort.  In  the  winter 
of  1907-08  a  trapper  from  the  States  had  a  cabin  near 
this  spot,  and  in  it  were  stored  all  of  his  supplies.  One 
January  day  he  returned  from  a  round  of  his  traps  and 


Photograph   by   the  Author 


The  wooden  tepee  whose  very  crudeness  spoke  eloquently 
of  the  direness  of  his  need  " 


Photograph  by  the  Author 


Stmie  (if  tlie  JJrulheiiiood  of  Trappers  and  Prospectors — one 
of  them  reshaping  a  dugout  canoe 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  259 

found  the  cabin  burned  down.  By  this  misfortune  he 
lost  all  his  food  except  a  little  flour  and  all  his  bedding 
except  one  blanket.  The  temperature  was  far  below 
zero,  and  the  wooden  tepee — whose  very  crudity  spoke 
eloquently  of  the  direness  of  his  need — was  his  attempted 
solution  of  the  problem  of  survival.  But  the  wind  blew 
cold  through  the  open  cleft,  and  sleep  was  a  nightmare. 
His  flour  ran  low,  and  game  seemed  to  have  deserted 
the  region.  One  day  he  wrote  on  a  marten  stretcher  the 
story  of  the  disaster  and  stated  that  he  intended  to  set 
out  for  Edmonton,  distant  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in 
a  direct  line  and  much  farther  as  he  would  have  to  go. 
Of  what  befell  him  on  that  lonely  winter  journey  there 
are  no  tidings,  but  in  some  wild  glen  in  that  illimitable 
waste  of  hills  his  bones  lie  scattered. 

A  somewhat  similar  misfortune  happened  to  my  old 
friend  Adolf  Anderson — seaman,  smuggler,  seal  poacher, 
gambler,  Klondiker,  prospector,  trapper,  and  all-round 
good  fellow — whose  life  story  I  have  told  elsewhere. 
With  another  Swede  named  Nels  Hansen  he  was  trap- 
ping on  the  headwaters  of  the  Athabasca,  and  on  the 
return  from  one  of  their  rounds  they  found  their  cabin 
burned  down  in  much  the  same  fashion.  They  were  five 
full  days  from  any  human  habitation,  and  they  had  but 
four  pounds  of  moose  meat,  though  they  had  some  dogs 
on  which  they  could  have  fed  as  a  last  resort.  They 
also  had  blankets. 

It  was  nearly  dark,  so  they  built  a  lean-to  of  spruce 
boughs,  intending  to  make  an  early  start  next  morning 
for  the  nearest  settlement. 

"  In  the  night,"  said  Anderson,  in  telling  me  the  story, 
"  I  woke  up  and  heard  Hansen  whispering  to  himself, 
for  he  was  not  much  more  than  a  kid.    '  Aw,  don't  worry,' 


26o     TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

I  say  to  him,  '  we'll  get  out  of  this  all  right.'  But  down 
deep  I  was  not  so  sure." 

Owing  to  a  blizzard  they  made  little  progress.  By 
the  third  day  their  moose  meat  was  eaten,  and  they 
were  terrifically  hungry. 

"  Hansen  could  talk  of  nothing  but  the  fine  feeds  he 
had  had,"  Anderson  relates.  ''  He  would  tell  of  the  big 
beefsteaks,  the  good  cabbage  and  potatoes,  and  the  yellow 
cheese  he  had  et.  At  last  I  say:  *  Shut  up,  or  I  will 
crack  you  over  the  head  and  eat  you!  ' 

"  That  afternoon  we  reached  a  small  lake  and  cut  a 
hole  through  the  ice  to  try  fishing.  It  was  a  hard  job, 
for  the  ice  was  over  four  feet  through,  but  at  last  we 
reached  the  water.  T  had  one  hook  and  a  little  bit  of 
moose  meat  I  had  saved.  While  we  had  been  cutting 
the  hole  the  dogs  sat  round  watching.  When  I  dropped 
the  hook  in  the  water,  they  all  stood  up  and  their  tails 
began  to  wag  this  way  " — waving  his  hand  from  side  to 
side — "as  if  they  were  saying:  'Here  is  where  we  get 
a  feed!'  Poor  fellows,  they  were  mistaken,  for  we 
caught  only  one  fish.  After  that  a  big  bull  trout  broke 
the  line,  and  we  had  no  more  hooks. 

"  The  next  day  we  were  so  hungry  and  weak  we  could 
hardly  break  trail.  That  evening  we  got  near  a  place 
in  the  muskeg  where  the  fall  before  a  weak  old  pack- 
horse  had  mired  down  and  could  not  get  out  and  was 
shot.  I  say:  '  It  will  do  to  feed  the  dogs.'  But  when 
we  got  there,  we  found  the  wolves  had  et  all  but  the  legs, 
which  were  frozen  in  the  mud.  We  built  a  big  fire  over 
the  spot  and  thawed  out  the  mud  so  we  could  pull  out 
the  legs.  I  gave  some  of  the  meat  to  the  dogs,  but  I 
noticed  that  the  roasted  meat  smelled  pretty  well,  so  by 
and  by  I  take  a  bite.    It  tasted  damned  good! 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  261 

"  Hansen  was  hungry,  but  no  horse  for  him.  He  would 
starve  first,  he  say.  I  filled  up  till  my  belly  stuck  out, 
then  I  went  to  sleep.  About  midnight  I  hear  the  fire 
cracking  big.  I  take  a  peep  out.  I  see  something  flash 
in  the  light.  It  look  like  a  horseshoe  moving.  Nels  was 
behind  that  horseshoe.  Next  morning  his  belly  stuck 
out  as  much  as  mine." 

Fortified  thus,  the  two  managed  three  days  later  to 
reach  another  trapper's  cabin  on  the  McLeod  River  and 
got  plenty  of  more  conventional  food. 

Another  adventure  which  Anderson  and  a  trapping 
partner  named  Lebhers  had  on  the  Thompson  River  in 
British  Columbia  did  not  turn  out  so  well.  They  had 
pulled  their  traps  in  the  spring  and  were  going  down 
the  river  in  an  old  dugout  when  the  dugout  filled  in  a 
swift  rapid,  and  they  were  thrown  out.  Anderson  was 
drawn  into  a  log  jam  and  was  nearly  drowned.  Lebhers 
managed  to  cling  to  the  dugout,  and  Anderson  thought 
he  would  be  safe,  but  when  the  Swede  got  ashore  he  could 
not  find  his  partner,  though  he  looked  for  him  for  two 
days.  Months  later  a  Canadian  Northern  survey  outfit 
found  Lebher's  body  in  a  great  jam  pile  many  miles 
down  the  river.  Anderson  and  a  policeman  went  in 
search  of  it  and  buried  it  under  a  tall  spruce  on  the  river 
bank.  As  they  had  no  priest  along,  Anderson  fired  a 
salute  of  five  shots  over  the  grave. 

Once  on  a  trip  down  Peace  River,  in  that  section 
where  the  river  bursts  through  the  mighty  wall  of  the 
Rockies,  we  landed  one  day  to  cook  lunch  on  a  beach 
above  which  there  is  a  flat  on  which  there  stands  a  rude 
cabin  roofed  with  strips  of  birchbark.  Within  the  cabin, 
in  the  dirt  floor,  there  is  a  depression.  The  cabin  was 
built  in  1898  by  three  prospectors  as  a  shelter  in  which 


262      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

to  spend  the  winter.  Toward  spring  two  died  of  scurvy, 
and  the  third  was  too  weak  to  dig  in  the  frozen  earth 
outside,  so  he  buried  his  comrades  in  the  cabin.  Later 
he  managed  to  make  his  way  back  to  civilization  but  died 
in  the  hospital  at  Edmonton.  He  is  said  to  have  told 
in  his  last  hours  of  an  immensely  rich  bar,  yielding  a 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  to  the  pan,  and  of  a 
great  hoard  of  buried  gold,  but  if  any  one  has  ever  suc- 
ceeded in  finding  the  treasure,  he  has  not  made  the  fact 
known  to  the  world. 

The  cabin  still  stands  there.  More  than  once  persons 
unacquainted  with  its  history  have  slept  in  it.  But  no 
one  who  knows  what  the  earth  beneath  its  roof  holds 
has  ever  been  known  to  pass  the  night  there,  no  matter 
how  fiercely  the  blizzard  may  roar. 

A  few  trappers  and  prospectors  find  their  lives  so 
lonely  that  they  mate  with  the  dusky  klooches  of  the 
country.  In  the  old  days  such  alliances  were  frequently 
entered  into  without  formal  matrimonial  accompaniments, 
but  Canadian  law  is  now  very  strict  in  such  matters  and 
is  made  in  the  interest  of  the  aborigines.  The  squaws 
know  their  rights  and  often  demand  formal  marriage 
ceremonies  before  they  will  give  themselves  to  their 
enamored  swains.  Perhaps  for  this  reason  there  is  com- 
paratively little  race  intermixture  in  the  upper  Peace 
country.  Klooches  do  not  bear  a  good  reputation  as 
wives,  either  morally  or  otherwise;  they  are  very  extrava- 
gant with  their  husband's  money  and  wasteful  with  food, 
nor  are  they  good  cooks. 

East  of  the  mountains  the  trapper's  great  prize  is  the 
fox,  particularly  the  black  and  the  silver,  which  are 
merely  color  variations  of  the  ordinary  red  fox  of  that 
country  and  are  liable  to  be  caught  almost  anywhere.    In 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  263 

the  mountains  the  most  sought  animal  is  the  marten,  and 
the  best  range  for  these  fur  bearers  is  in  old,  thick  forest, 
at  high  altitudes.  Country  that  has  been  burned  over 
and  then  reforested  is  not  likely  to  contain  many  marten. 
In  traveling  through  a  new  region  with  a  trapper  one 
will  now  and  then  have  his  attention  called  to  a  tract  as 
certain  to  be  "  good  marten  country." 

Some  trap  lines  are  very  long,  seventy,  eighty,  ninety, 
or  even  a  hundred  miles,  but  there  are  short  ones  also. 
At  The  Gate  on  Peace  River,  some  miles  below  Hudson's 
Hope,  there  lives  a  certain  Dr.  Greene  who  runs  a  line 
on  which  all  the  traps  are  set  on  bare  hillsides  in  sight 
of  his  cabin.  When  he  deems  it  desirable  to  make  the 
round  of  his  line,  he  merely  takes  a  pair  of  powerful  field 
glasses  and  through  them  ascertains  whether  any  of  the 
traps  have  been  sprung.  If  there  is  an  animal  in  one 
of  them,  he  has,  of  course,  to  walk  thither  and  take  it 
out;  otherwise,  he  is  able  to  return  in  a  few  minutes  to 
the  cheerful  comfort  of  his  fire.  He  evidently  was  born 
lucky,  for  one  winter  he  caught  a  silver  fox  and  sold  it 
for  several  hundred  dollars. 

A  trapper's  financial  success  depends  in  large  measure 
on  his  skill  in  marketing  his  catch.  Those  who  are  shrewd 
enough  to  bring  their  fur  to  one  of  the  larger  markets, 
such  as  Edmonton,  are  likely,  if  they  keep  sober  long 
enough,  to  obtain  fair  prices.  Those  who  sell  their  catch 
to  the  Hudson's  Bay  posts  or  to  free  traders  in  the  region 
where  the  catch  was  made  most  generally  must  be  content 
with  small  returns.  The  Indian  trappers,  in  particular, 
suffer  in  this  respect,  though  not  so  much  so  as  when 
Hudson's  Bay  had  a  monopoly  of  the  fur  business.  One 
hears  stories  of  trappers  who  make  twelve  or  fifteen  hun- 
dred or  even  two  thousand  dollars  a  year,  but  most  do 


264      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

well  if  they  realize  four,  six,  or  seven  hundred  from 
their  catch. 

The  successful  prospector  may  be  waylaid  and  mur- 
dered and  his  precious  dust  stolen,  but,  unlike  the 
trapper,  he  is  at  least  not  troubled  by  fluctuating  prices. 
In  peace  or  war^  in  bad  times  or  flush  times,  gold  is  in- 
variably worth  the  same  sum  an  ounce,  namely  $20.67, 
not  a  mill  more  and  not  a  mill  less,  for  gold  is  the  standard 
of  value.  The  amount  of  goods  that  a  trapper  can  buy 
with  an  ounce  of  dust  will  vary,  but  not  the  price  of  the 
dust  itself. 

Trapping,  however,  is  a  much  more  certain  profession 
than  prospecting.  If  the  total  number  of  dollars  made 
by  hopeful  prospectors  seeking  gold  in  the  Northwest 
were  to  be  divided  by  the  number  of  days  they  spent 
seeking  it,  the  daily  wage  would  average  no  more  than 
a  few  cents.  Now  and  then  a  lucky  man  finds  a  ledge 
of  quartz  or  a  seam  of  coal  that  he  can  sell  for  a  large 
sum,  or  a  rich  bar  from  which  he  can  pan  out  big 
returns,  but  frequently  a  whole  summer's  labor  produces 
little  or  nothing. 

Nevertheless,  a  prospector  never  ceases  to  hope  that 
he  will  stumble  upon  a  rich  prize  such  as  has  fallen  to 
other  men  in  the  past,  and  he  continues  to  play  the 
game  with  all  the  abandon  of  a  devotee  of  roulette  or  a 
lottery.  Such  a  man  may  spend  his  last  cent  on  the 
gold  trail,  but,  just  as  soon  as  he  can,  by  trapping  or 
otherwise,  make  a  new  grubstake,  he  is  off  again  into  the 
mountains  after  the  golden  will  o'  the  wisp. 

Of  the  many  stories  of  this  sort  of  persistence  I  think 
the  most  tragic  I  ever  heard  was  that  of  an  old  pros- 
pector in  Colorado.  He  conceived  the  idea  that  by  driv- 
ing a  shaft  into  the  side  of  a  certain  mountain  he  could 


-^ 


9i 


"^••'..1-. 


Pliotugraph    by   the   Antlior 

Trappers  and  a  dugout  canoe 


~^w^ 

IB^ 

l^^J*^-    ■  ■  - 

■■^ 

r 

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fjiJi 

-^^ 

V     <      ■       i 

Photograph    by  the   Author 
A  prospectur  ■'panning"  for  gidd 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  265 

strike  a  rich  lode  from  which  a  celebrated  mine  was 
taking  millions.  For  years  he  toiled  at  the  task.  When 
his  money  would  give  out,  he  would  work  at  something 
else  until  he  had  accumulated  a  little  stake  and  could 
once  more  return  to  the  labor  that  was  to  make  him  rich. 
But  he  grew  old  and  feeble;  the  shaft  progressed  less 
rapidly  than  his  bodily  infirmities.  One  day  the  old  man 
wrapped  himself  in  his  blanket  with  a  stick  of  dynamite 
and  touched  off  the  fuse. 

The  richest  strike  ever  made  on  Peace  River  head- 
waters was  found  in  a  bar  on  the  west  bank  of  Finlay 
River,  a  few  miles  above  the  mouth.  The  lucky  finder 
was  a  giant  Cornishman  named  Pete  Toy,  and  he  and 
others  are  reputed  to  have  taken  out  seventy  thousand 
dollars'  worth  of  dust.  Long  after  making  his  great 
clean-up  Toy  remained  a  celebrated  character  in  the 
region.  He  built  a  cabin  farther  up  the  Finlay,  and 
tradition  says  that  he  had  two  klooches  to  pack  his  goods 
for  him.  Ultimately  he  was  drowned  in  the  Black 
Canyon  of  the  Omineca,  and,  of  course,  there  is  a  story 
that  he  left  a  vast  hoard  of  dust  buried  in  some  secret 
spot. 

His  bar  still  exercises  a  fascination  upon  those  who  have 
felt  the  lure  of  gold.  Many  have  taken  a  whirl  at  it, 
and  they  never  fail  to  wash  out  a  little  gold.  Shortly 
before  I  saw  it  in  191 6  some  prospector  had  happened 
that  way  and  had  squared  the  stump  of  a  small  poplar 
and  set  down  in  pencil  that  he  meant  to  file  a  claim 
there.  He  must  have  been  a  man  with  a  sense  of  humor, 
for  he  called  the  claim  the  "  Perhaps  Placer." 

There  are  many  bars  in  that  region  that  could  doubt- 
less be  worked  with  profit  with  steam  dredges,  if  the 
cost  of  transportation  from  the  railway,  over  two  hun- 


266      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

dred  miles  away,  did  not  forbid.  Years  ago  the  discov- 
erer of  the  diggings  on  Germansen  Creek  acquired  the 
name  of  "  Old  Hog'em  "  because  he  charged  forty-five 
dollars  for  a  small  sack  of  flour  ground  at  Williams  Lake 
from  frozen  wheat.  The  Hudson's  Bay  Company  still 
pays  ten  cents  a  pound  to  the  freighter  who  brings  in  its 
goods,  and  miners  find  the  costs  practically  prohibitive. 

A  dozen  miles  below  Toy's  Bar  stands  Mount  Selwyn, 
an  immense  mountain  containing  hundreds  of  millions 
of  tons  of  gold  quartz  that  is  said  to  assay  from  four  to 
eighteen  dollars  to  the  ton.  Until  a  railroad  is  built 
nothing  can  be  done  to  develop  this  immense  treasure 
hoard,  for  quartz  is  a  matter  of  mining  on  a  large  scale — 
of  heavy  and  costly  machinery  and  large  numbers  of 
workmen.  It  lacks  the  romantic  interest  that  attaches  to 
"  poor  man's  gold,"  that  is,  "  pay  dirt  "  on  a  river  bar. 

When  gold  is  in  question,  a  large  section  of  humanity 
seem  to  go  stark,  staring  crazy,  and  in  consequence  one 
hears  of  innumerable  foolish  ventures  and  hoaxes.  None 
that  I  have  ever  heard  surpasses  what  old  man  Peterson 
at  Finlay  Forks  relates  of  a  rush  to  Parsnip  River  in 
'98.  He  told  some  of  us  the  full  story  one  night  as  we 
sat  in  his  cabin  at  the  Forks. 

"  I  was  on  my  way  up  Fraser  River  to  Giscome  Por- 
tage," said  he  reminiscently  as  he  stuck  a  fresh  stick  of 
balsam  poplar  into  his  little  stove.  "  At  Soda  Creek  I 
caught  up  ^vith  one  of  the  queerest  outfits  I  had  ever  run 
into.  They  were  headed  by  a  fine-looking,  gray-haired 
old  gentleman  called  Colonel  Parker.  Parker  had  been 
in  the  country  before  and  had  staked  a  lot  of  placer 
claims  along  the  gravel  bars  of  the  lower  Parsnip.  He 
had  then  gone  back  to  the  States  and  had  advertised  all 
over  the  country  what  a  sure  thing  he  had  and  how  badly 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  267 

he  wanted  to  take  some  partners  into  the  business  and 
make  them  rich.  Well,  he  managed  to  gather  in  a  bunch 
of  twenty-eight  from  various  places,  but  mostly  from 
Philadelphia,  New  York  City,  and  Peoria.  I  remember 
two  from  Peoria  very  well.  One  had  resigned  as  chief 
of  police  because  he  felt  sure  he  could  dig  a  lot  of  gold 
in  Cariboo,  and  his  brother  had  sold  a  grocery  store 
and  come  along.  Another  man  owned  a  big  shoe  store 
in  Philadelphia,  and  all  of  the  men  had  money.  Colonel 
Parker  wouldn't  have  bothered  with  them  if  they  hadn't. 

"  They  had  it  all  figured  out  that  they  couldn't  fail 
to  go  home  millionaires.  The  Colonel  had  told  them  that 
a  cubic  foot  of  gravel  would  pan  out  twenty  dollars  in 
gold,  and  there  were  so  many  thousand  cubic  feet  in 
the  top  layer  of  each  claim.  The  next  layer  was  richer 
still — twenty-five  dollars  to  the  cubic  foot.  The  third 
was  still  richer — and  so  on.  A  few  had  even  taken  the 
trouble  to  calculate  down  for  a  mile,  but  I  forget  exactly 
how  much  gold  they  were  going  to  have  when  they  got 
down  that  far. 

"  The  terms  on  which  they  had  bought  their  share  of 
the  claims — of  course,  the  Colonel  retained  a  share  in 
each — were  half  down  in  cash  and  the  other  half  deposited 
in  a  Philadelphia  bank  to  be  subject  to  the  Colonel's 
order  not  earlier  than  a  certain  day  in  July.  Altogether 
the  claims  sold  came  to  a  total  of  seventy-eight  thousand 
dollars. 

"  Most  of  the  party  had  never  paddled  a  canoe  before, 
and  good  canoe-men  were  scarce.  The  Colonel  had 
rounded  up  two  Siwash  to  help,  and  he  persuaded  me  to 
go  along.  He  was  a  very  persuasive  man  was  that 
Colonel.  It  wasn't  a  bad  trip.  There  was  grub  enough 
for  three  times  as  many  people,  plenty  of  tobacco,  plenty 


268      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

of  Scotch  whiskey.  When  any  of  us  felt  bad  we  took 
a  drink  of  Scotch,  Most  of  us  felt  bad  pretty  often. 
Then  there  were  some  good  singers  and  a  cornet  player. 
He  played  night  and  day. 

"  When  we  got  to  Giscome  Rapids,  one  of  the  canoes 
ran  onto  a  rock  and  upset.  One  of  the  men  went  down. 
He  just  threw  up  his  hands  and  sank,  and  we  saw  him 
no  more. 

"  That  scared  most  of  the  bunch  terribly.  They 
wanted  to  turn  back,  but  the  Colonel  stepped  in  and 
changed  their  minds.  He  knew  just  how  to  say  the 
right  word  at  the  right  time  and  could  smooth  out  any- 
thing. He  found  that  one  of  the  fellows  still  had  three 
hundred  dollars  with  him,  and  he  sold  him  an  eighth 
of  a  claim  that  had  been  overlooked ! 

"  In  spite  of  his  tongue-shooting  skill,  though,  he 
couldn't  persuade  all  of  them  to  stay  in  the  boats  after 
the  drowning.  Three  of  them  insisted  on  walking  along 
through  the  woods.  They  got  lost  and  were  not  found 
for  five  days. 

"  When  we  got  to  Giscome  Portage,  it  was  clear  that 
it  would  take  a  long  time  to  get  all  the  stuff  over  the 
eight-mile  carry.  One  day  the  Colonel  called  his  part- 
ners together  and  said  to  them: 

"  '  Gentlemen,  it'll  take  several  days  to  make  this  por- 
tage, and  I'm  going  to  make  a  quick  trip  down  river 
after  more  supplies.  I'll  catch  you  up  on  Crooked 
River.' 

"  So  he  took  one  of  the  Siwash  and  lit  out  down  the 
Fraser  in  a  light  canoe.  It  was  a  week  before  any  one 
happened  to  think  that  the  next  Tuesday  was  the  day 
when  the  money  in  the  Philadelphia  bank  became  subject 
to  the  Colonel's  order.    They  talked  the  thing  over,  and 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  269 

three  of  the  most  suspicious  got  into  a  canoe  and  set  out 
for  the  nearest  telegraph  station,  but  didn't  get  there  in 
time.  None  of  the  party  ever  saw  the  Colonel  again, 
and  none  of  them  ever  made  any  millions  washing  out 
gold  on  Parsnip  River  either." 

An  almost  equally  weird  episode  was  recently  enacted 
in  the  Finlay  country  within  my  own  knowledge.  One 
day  there  appeared  at  the  Philadelphia  office  of  the 
Tonopah  Mining  Company  an  individual  whom  we  shall 
call  Dr.  James  Richardson.  With  him  he  brought  some 
rich  specimens  of  copper  ore  and  stated  that  he  had  found 
them  in  a  "  blow-out "  on  the  headwaters  of  Finlay 
River.  His  story  was  so  explicit  and  the  specimens  were 
so  rich  that  the  officers  of  the  Company  sent  two  young 
mining  engineers,  whom  we  shall  call  Barrett  and  Mac- 
Pherson,  to  go  to  the  "  blow-out "  with  Richardson  and 
make  a  report. 

The  three  reached  Prince  George  early  in  the  summer 
and  assembled  an  expedition  which,  after  six  weeks  of 
hard  labor,  reached  the  Long  Canyon  of  the  Finlay,  in 
the  neighborhood  where  Richardson  said  he  had  found 
the  copper. 

Arrived  there,  however,  he  explained  that  the  "  blow- 
out "  was  several  days'  journey  back  from  the  river. 
After  careful  preparations  the  party  set  out  overland 
with  pack-sacks,  but  a  few  miles  back  in  the  mountains 
Richardson  fell  over  a  log  and  said  he  had  sprained  his 
ankle  so  badly  that  he  would  have  to  turn  back  to  the 
camp  on  the  river.  He  gave  Barrett  and  MacPherson 
a  rough  map  which  they  followed  faithfully,  only  to  dis- 
cover that  the  region  was  totally  destitute  of  mineral  of 
any  sort.  After  some  good  sport  with  caribou,  sheep, 
and  goats,  they  returned  to  the  river.    Relations  between 


270      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

them  and  Richardson  thenceforth  became  decidedly 
strained,  more  particularly  after  they  reached  Fort 
Grahame  on  the  return  and  there  ascertained  that  cer- 
tain Indians  whom  Richardson  claimed  had  guided  him 
on  his  previous  trip  had  never  even  seen  him  before.  In 
reality,  he  had  never  been  in  the  country  at  all,  but  proba- 
bly had  talked  with  some  who  had,  though  what  he  ex- 
pected to  make  out  of  the  trip  is  not  apparent. 

At  Finlay  Forks  old  man  Peterson  and  a  trapper 
named  Cowart  joined  the  party  and  accompanied  them 
back  to  Prince  George.  Relations  between  the  doctor 
and  the  two  engineers  continued  decidedly  cool,  and  by 
and  by  Richardson  became  alarmed.  One  day  he  took 
old  Peterson  aside  and  gave  him  a  letter,  upon  the  back 
of  which  were  instructions  to  the  effect  that  if  he,  Rich- 
ardson, should  meet  with  any  fatal  "  accident,"  the  letter 
was  to  be  handed  "  To  the  King's  Magistrate,  Prince 
George,  B.  C."  Soon  after  his  return  Peterson  showed 
me  the  letter,  and,  as  I  had  met  the  party  on  the  Finlay, 
I  was  enough  interested  to  copy  parts  of  it.  The  gist 
of  the  whole  thing  was  that  the  doctor  was  convinced 
that  Barrett  and  MacPherson  meant  to  kill  him  and 
then  pretend  that  the  tragedy  was  an  accident. 

Neither  of  the  engineers  procured  the  "  accident " 
that  the  doctor  so  much  dreaded,  but  on  the  way  up 
Crooked  River  one  of  them  did  miss  some  valuable 
beaver  skins  he  had  bought  at  the  Forks.  The  skins 
were  subsequently  found  in  the  doctor's  baggage.  In 
spite  of  all,  however,  the  mining  company,  in  response 
to  a  query  wired  by  Barrett,  replied  that  he  should  pay 
the  doctor's  expenses  back  to  Philadelphia.  It  was  done, 
and  he  was  seen  no  more  in  Cariboo. 

The  trapper  and  prospector  cuts  a  fine  figure  in  the 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  271 

woods  and  mountains,  but  too  often  he  loses  his  usual 
good  sense  when  he  gets  into  town,  and  in  wild  debauch 
will  often  throw  away  the  hard-come  earnings  of  an  entire 
season.  John  Barleycorn,  not  grizzlies,  wolves,  blizzards, 
or  even  wolverines,  is  his  worst  enemy. 

The  most  perfect  physical  specimen  of  the  brotherhood 
I  ever  saw  came  to  grief  because  of  this  enemy.  He  was 
a  young  fellow  of  perhaps  twenty-seven,  a  native  of  the 
South,  the  son  of  a  distinguished  Presbyterian  minister. 
He  had  ridden  horseback  from  Arizona  to  Alberta  and 
worked  for  a  time  as  a  packer,  then  turned  prospector  and 
trapper.  He  was  a  jovial,  high-spirited,  upstanding, 
black-eyed  chap,  so  vigorous  that  one  morning  I  saw 
him  jump  completely  over  a  bare-backed  cayuse  he  was 
trying  to  mount.  At  the  time  I  knew  him  he  did  not 
drink,  but  he  had  the  reputation  of  being  able  to  eat 
more  candy  and  cuss  more  fluently  than  any  other  man 
in  Alberta.  He  also  had  a  sense  of  humor.  When  a 
petition  was  passed  around  for  a  postoffice  at  a  certain 
point  on  the  new  transcontinental,  some  of  the  men  who 
happened  to  be  signing  it  added  to  their  signatures  their 
college  degrees:  "  B.A.,"  "  M.A.,"  "M.S.,"  etc.  When 
it  came  his  turn,  he  wrote  down:  "  Dirck  Hunter,  C.E." 

"  But  you  aren't  a  Civil  Engineer,"  a  bystander  ob- 
jected. 

"Huh!  "  said  Hunter,  "that  C.E.  doesn't  stand  for 
Civil  Engineer,  it  stands  for  Cayuse  Expert!  " 

One  November  Hunter  and  his  partner  came  in  to 
Edmonton  for  a  short  stay  and  registered  at  one  of  the 
hotels.  They  drank  a  good  deal,  and,  when  not  himself 
for  this  reason,  Hunter  happened  to  look  at  the  hotel 
register  and  discovered  that  some  wag  had  signed  his 
name,  "Jack  Johnson,  Pugilist."    This  roused  Hunter's 


272      TRAILMAKERS  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

Southern  prejudices,  and  he  made  an  unprovoked  attack 
upon  a  negro  porter^  who  was  sweeping  the  floor.  In 
self-defense  the  porter,  a  man  of  good  character,  struck 
Hunter  over  the  head  with  a  beer  bottle.  The  injury 
was  not  considered  serious,  and  little  attention  was  paid 
to  it  until  the  next  day,  toward  the  end  of  which  Hunter 
died  of  concussion  of  the  brain. 

The  negro  was  tried  for  murder,  but  his  employers 
stood  loyally  by  him,  and  his  counsel  made  a  shrewd 
speech  picturing  the  defendant  as  fleeing  from  the  South 
to  escape  race  prejudice  and  taking  refuge  under  the  folds 
of  the  British  flag.  The  jury  quickly  brought  in  a  ver- 
dict of  not  guilty.  Some  of  Hunter's  friends  were  bitterly 
indignant.  One  of  them  offered  the  negro  five  dollars  a 
day  to  cook  for  his  outfit  of  packers,  but  the  colored 
man  was  foxy  enough  to  decline  the  job. 

The  traveler  in  the  wilderness  comes  to  realize  that 
there  is  something  wonderfully  attractive  in  the  wild,  free 
life  of  the  trapper  and  prospector,  but  he  also  catches 
glimpses  now  and  then  of  the  reverse  of  the  shield.  The 
genuine  member  of  the  brotherhood  usually  has  no  home 
ties — only  friends.  Friends  die  or  drift  away  as  the  years 
glide  by,  and  as  the  infirmities  of  age  creep  upon  him 
he  is  likely  to  feel  the  loneliness  of  his  life.  Not  in- 
frequently he  becomes  a  pathetic  figure,  unable  longer 
to  make  a  grubstake  and  dependent  on  charity  for  food 
and  a  home.  Yet  here  and  there  a  man  remains  hale 
and  hearty  despite  his  years,  and  I  have  heard  of  men 
of  eighty  who  still  hunted  for  golden  sands  in  summer 
and  followed  the  fur  trail  in  winter  and  waited  in  their 
cabins  in  the  woods  for  the  final  summons.  At  first 
thought  such  an  end,  alone  without  the  soothing  hand 
of  wife  or  child,  may  seem  most  tragic,  but,  after  all, 


TRAPPERS  AND  PROSPECTORS  273 

what  does  it  matter?  What  death  could  be  more  sublime 
than  one  alone  with  God?  What  tomb  more  restful 
than  a  lonely  grave  among  the  eternal  hills? 

For  a  million  years  the  mountains  have  looked  down 
upon  the  pettiness  of  man,  and  though  their  sides  are 
scarred  by  frost  and  wind  and  avalanche,  they  will  look 
down  for  a  million  more.  In  their  presence  one  can 
glimpse  deeper  than  elsewhere  into  eternal  verities  and 
better  realize  the  immensity  of  the  unknowable  universe. 


o 


A  LIST  OF  BOOKS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

The  literature  of  Northwestern  exploration  and  adventure  is 
a  vast  one,  and  this  bibliography  does  not  purport  to  be  in 
any  sense  exhaustive.  It  is  merely  a  list  of  those  books  which 
the  general  reader  would  be  likely  to  find  most  interesting. 
The  hunter,  the  naturalist,  the  lover  of  wild  places  will  find  in 
these  books  the  doorway  to  many  hours  of  fascinating  enjoy- 
ment. 

Amundsen,  Roald,  The  Northwest  Passage  (New  York,  1908), 
a  charming  book  by  one  of  the  greatest  explorers  of  all  time. 
Burpee,  Lawrence  J.,  Among  the  Canadian  Alps    (London, 
19 14),  a  beautifully  illustrated  book  which  should  be  read 
by  every  one  interested  in  the  Canadian  Rockies. 
Butler,  William,  The  Great  Lone  Land  (London,  1872),  the 
author,  an  army  officer,  helped  to  put  down  the  first  Riel 
rebellion  and  then  made  a  winter  journey  across  the  plains 
to  the  foothills  of  the  Rockies  and  back  to  the  Red  River 
region;  he  had  a  gift  for  writing  and  his  book  is  well  worth 
reading. 
Butler,  William,  The  Wild  Northland  (London,   1874),  de- 
scribes in  vivid  language  the  incidents  of  a  trip  across  the 
continent  by  way  of  the  Great  Plains,  Peace  River,  and 
the  Omineca. 
Cameron,  Agnes  D.,  The  New  North  (New  York,  1909),  de- 
scribes a  trip  by  steamer  down  the  Mackenzie  to  its  mouth 
and  up  Peace  River  through  the  plains  country. 
Franklin,  John,  Narrative  of  a  Journey  to  the  Shores  of  The 
■   Polar  Sea  in  the  Years  i8ig,  20,  21,  and22  (London,  1823), 

contains  the  tragic  story  of  "  Franklin's  First  Voyage." 
Hanbury,  David  T.,  Sport  and  Travel  in  the  Northland  of 

275 


276    A  LIST  OF  BOOKS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

Canada  (New  York,  1904),  written  by  one  of  the  most  re- 
sourceful of  sub-arctic  travelers. 

Haworth,  Paul  L.,  On  the  Headwaters  of  Peace  River  (New 
York,  191 7),  an  account  of  a  thousand-mile  canoe  trip  to 
an  unexplored  range  of  the  Canadian  Rockies.  In  1919 
the  author  pushed  still  further  into  the  region  and  later  de- 
scribed his  experiences  in  an  article  entitled  "  To  the 
Quadacha  Country  and  Mt.  Lloyd  George,"  in  Scribner's 
Magazine  for  June,  1920. 

Hearne,  Samuel,  A  Journal  from  Prince  of  Wales's  Fort  in 
Hudson's  Bay  to  the  Northern  Ocean  (London,  1795),  a 
classic  work  that  every  one  interested  in  adventure  should 
read.  A  new  edition,  edited  by  J.  B.  Tyrrell,  was  published 
at  Toronto  in  191 1  by  the  Champlain  Society. 

Hornaday,  William  T,,  Camp-Fires  in  the  Canadian  Rockies 
(New  York,  1906),  an  extremely  interesting  and  splendidly 
illustrated  book  by  one  of  the  greatest  faunal  naturalists  of 
our  time. 

Laut,  Agnes  C,  Pathfinders  of  the  West  (Toronto,  1904),  an 
historical  work  which  deals  with  the  early  period  of  explora- 
tion in  Canada  and  our  own  Northwest. 

Laut,  Agnes  C,  Conquest  of  the  Great  Northwest  (2  vols.,  New 
York,  1908),  deals  mainly  with  the  romantic  history  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company. 

Mackenzie,  Alexander,  Voyages  (2  vols.,  London,  1802),  de- 
scribes the  explorer's  celebrated  journeys  to  the  Arctic  and 
the  Pacific. 

Milton,  Viscount,  and  W.  B.  Cheadle,  The  Northwest  Passage 
by  Land  (London,  1865),  a  well-written  account  of  a  jour- 
ney across  the  Plains  and  through  the  Rockies  by  way  of  the 
Yellowhead  Pass  in  the  years  1862  and  1863. 

Pike,  Warburton,  The  Barren  Ground  of  Northern  Canada 
(New  ed.,  New  York,  191 7),  in  some  respects  the  most  fas- 
cinating book  that  has  been  written  about  adventure  in  the 
Northwest. 


A  LIST  OF  BOOKS  FOR  FURTHER  READING    277 

Pike,  Warburton,  Through  the  Sub-Arctic  Forest  (New  York, 
1896),  an  interesting  book,  though  hardly  so  good  as  that 
describing  his  experiences  in  the  Barren  Ground. 

Seton,  Ernest  Thompson,  The  Arctic  Prairies  (New  York, 
191 1 ),  describes  a  summer  trip  to  the  Barren  Grounds  and 
contains  many  interesting  observations  on  natural  history. 

Southesk,  Earl  of,  Saskatchewan  and  the  Rocky  Mountains 
,  .  .  in  iSsQ  and  i860  (Edinburgh,  1875),  the  author 
crossed  the  great  plains  and  penetrated  some  distance  into 
the  Rockies. 

Sheldon,  Charles,  The  Wilderness  of  the  Upper  Yukon  (New 
York,  191 1 ),  the  author  made  a  study  of  the  various  species 
of  mountain  sheep  in  the  Yukon  country,  and  the  story  of 
his  experiences  makes  one  of  the  best  hunting  books  that  has 
ever  been  written. 

Sheldon,  Charles,  The  Wilderness  of  the  Pacific  Coast  Islands 
(New  York,  1912),  narrates  the  author's  experiences  hunt- 
ing bears  and  other  big  game  in  the  region  mentioned  in  the 
title. 

Tyrrell,  J.  W.,  Across  the  Sub- Arctics  of  Canada  (Toronto, 
1897),  describes  the  incidents  of  a  canoe  trip  from  Lake 
Athabasca  to  Chesterfield  Inlet  and  up  the  west  coast  of 
Hudson  Bay. 

Wilcox,  Walter  D.,  The  Rockies  of  Canada  (New  York,  1900), 
a  revised  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  same  author's  Camping 
in  the  Canadian  Rockies. 


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